Fullmetal Alchemist: Generations After
by xhidden-shadowsx
Summary: A lot can happen with the simplest of mistakes. Full Summary inside. Please R&R and be patient, it's a long story. Rated T to be safe.
1. Meeting New Friends

**Summary:**

**A lot can happen with the simplest of mistakes. Joan Elric had no idea dropping her silver pocket watch, that once belonged to her great-grandfather, could have such an impact. Because of it, she met Laura and Clarissa Mustang, and learned about a secret slave trade going on throughout Amestris. Starting with a simple rescue of two slaves, Tessema of the Chang clan in Xing and an Ishvalan named Takara, that one rescue quickly turns into the liberation of many slaves.**

**But as events unfold, the group discover more serious matters. A new 'Father' has created new homunculi and runs the slave trace from the tunnels beneath Central City. Not only that, but highly trained and highly skilled assassins appear at every turn, hunting them down with an agenda of their own.**

**Can the group of liberators, ever growing in number as they make new friends, manage to destroy the slave trade before they're killed?**

**A/N This was originally a role-play that my cousin, a couple of my friends, and I did. With some editing, we turned it into a fanfic. I did some last minute editing to make it better, since we didn't start out the best, but improve as we go. And even though this is a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic, none of the original characters show up, they're mentioned but the don't appear. This is about three generations after the end of the manga.**

**...**

Fifteen-year-old Joan Elric swung around the silver pocket watch she always carried with her as she waited for the train to get to its destination. It was the same silver pocket watch that state alchemists once used to prove that they were, in fact, state alchemists. But that state alchemist program had been abolished after Amestris became a democracy not long after Fuhrer King Bradley was killed. Joan used the pocket watch to pay for many things and get admission into otherwise restricted areas. The bank funds for the state alchemists were mysteriously still full and being refilled. So that begged the question: was the state alchemist program really abolished? Or did it secretly still exist? Joan had gotten her watch from a chest she found in the attic. When she asked her dad about it, he'd told her the watch belonged to her great-grandpa, Edward Elric, who was referred to as the Fullmetal Alchemist when he could still use alchemy.

She opened the pocket watch and took a moment to gaze and the date inscribed on it with her golden-brown eyes. She had to brush back her long hair that mirrored the color of her eyes. After some research, she had discovered it was the date and Edward and his brother Alphonse had burned their home and started their journey to get their bodies back after they committed the alchemists' ultimate taboo of human transmutation. She averted her thoughts and just hoped that she'd get to Central soon.

Finally, the train arrived at Central and Joan pocketed the watch, gathered her stuff, and got off the train. She saw a girl walking in circles at the station and took a moment to stare, but decided that she was hungry and went to find something to eat, passing by the girl to get there. She failed to notice her pocket watch fall out of her pocket.

...

Clarissa walked around in a circle at the train station, very bored, playing with her braided black hair and she did so. Her brown eyes scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar face. Clarissa saw the girl with long golden-brown hair all tied in a ponytail, except her bangs, which flowed down freely, stare at her and stopped walking in circles. She noticed something fall out of the girl's pocket as she walked away, then bent down and picked it up. Looking at it, she recognized it as one of the old State Alchemist watches from her great-grandparents' time. She looked up, searching for the girl, and noticed her just before she disappeared into the crowd. She reached down and grabbed her suitcase, heading the direction the girl had walked.

...

Joan headed for a nearby restaurant when she heard someone yelling and turned around to see who it was, seeing the girl that had been walking in circles. Clarissa caught up to Joan and handed her the watch.

"You dropped this. Where did you find it? It's pretty cool."

Joan had a momentary feeling of dread when she realized that she had dropped it then felt relieved that this girl returned it. She took it and put it back in her pocket.

"It belonged to my Great-Grandpa and is very valuable to me. Thanks for bringing it back." Wanting to repay the girl who looked around her age, maybe fourteen, she offered, "Do you want something to eat? I can pay,"

"Oh, thanks. I'll come with you, but I can pay for myself," she said kindly. "That's awesome, where you got that watch. I've seen pictures of those watches in books and stuff, but I didn't think I'd ever see a real one."

Joan smiled, "Are you sure you want to pay?" She would have had very little money if she'd lost the watch. They walked to the restaurant together, talking. "So what's your name anyway?" Joan asked.

"I'm fine," she said, "I'm Clarissa."

"That's a cool name," Joan said, "I'm Joan, nice to meet you."

Clarissa nodded, "Nice to meet you, too."

They ordered some food and continued talking while they waited for it to come.

"So what were you doing at the Station, walking in circles?" Joan asked, "Waiting for someone?"

Laura was walking the streets of Central City when she saw a familiar face, stopping dead in her tracks. It was her sister, and she was talking to someone Laura didn't recognize. Laura walked over with a smile.

"Hey, Clarissa," she said when she got to the restaurant.

"Who's this?" Joan asked Clarissa.

Laura looked at the other girl with a confused face, eyeing the stranger with her green eyes. "Who're you?"

"I asked first," Joan said.

They didn't give Clarissa a chance to talk.

Laura smiled. "I'm Laura Mustang, Clarissa's older sister," she explained, playing with her black hair that matched her sister's in everything but style, which were slightly different.

"And I'm Joan Elric," Joan informed her. "Me and Clarissa were just talking."

"Hey sis, glad you finally showed up." Clarissa said, finally getting a word in. "Why don't you join us? We just ordered."

"Yeah, eat with us," Joan smiled.

Laura smiled. "Sure, so what were you talking about?" she asked, sitting down.

"We were actually talking about who I was waiting for," Clarissa said.

Laura nodded. "Which was me?" she asked, confused.

"Well, yes. Don't you remember? I wanted to meet you in Central. Or did you totally forget that conversation we had at midnight a couple nights ago?" Clarissa said, "Ok, it wasn't midnight, but you were acting like I woke you up at midnight."

Laura shook her head. "No, I don't remember. And you did wake me up at midnight!"

"Now I'm lost," Joan put her hands up in the air, unable to follow the conversation. The waiter brought their food and Joan started eating hers. "So what are you guys doing in Central anyway? You're both around my age."

Laura looked at Joan. "Hmm? Oh, um, I don't know, I'll let Clarissa explain that one," she said tiredly.

"Well, I'm just traveling. I dragged her here because I wanted to see her," she said carefully, like she was trying to avoid mentioning something. "What are you doing?"

Joan wasn't sure if she wanted to tell her exactly why. She hesitated before saying, "I'm looking for someone."

Clarissa nodded, gathering from the way she answered she really didn't want to talk about it much either. Joan pulled out her pocket watch and looked at it. She opened it half to check the time and half just to look at the engraving on the inside. _Don't Forget 3 Oct 11_. It was ironic, because the month and day were the same as when she tried human transmutation. What were the odds? So the engraving seemed to mean something to her just as much as it did her great-grandfather.

Laura looked at her sister and Joan, confused. "Um, is there a reason you both are very quiet?" she asked with a titled head.

Clarissa shrugged. "I'm just enjoying my lunch."

Laura nodded, but didn't really believe her. _If she knew about mom..._ she suddenly thought, then Laura pushed the thought away.

"So how are things at home?" Clarissa asked her sister to change the subject. "You and Mom doing alright? I haven't heard from either of you in a while."

Laura looked up and bit her lip. "About that, I'm not living with Mom anymore."

"Oh. Since when?" Clarissa asked, a frown forming on her face.

Laura frowned. "Since she died when I was twelve," she said as the memory came back.

"Wait, what?" Clarissa could hardly believe her ears and refused to believe it.

Laura frowned, "I'm sorry I never told you, it was too hard to talk about it at the time."

"Oh..." Clarissa said quietly. She sat silently for a minute, but eventually said, "So where are you living now?"

Laura smiled a little. "My friend Poppy and her mom took me in after I lost my left arm."

"Alright, you have a lot of explaining to do! But let's not bother poor Joan with all this, she probably has her own problems to worry about, she doesn't need ours as well," Clarissa said, wanting to know all the details eventually.

Laura nodded, "True."

"It's alright. You can go ahead and talk about whatever you need to. I'm kind of interested. How'd you lose your arm?" Joan questioned, hoping what she suspected wasn't true. She didn't want to believe that anyone would make the same mistake she did.

Clarissa glanced away, rubbing her right hand unconsciously across her left forearm. Please don't say what I think you'll say, she thought nervously.

Joan subtly rubbed her leg stumps and her left shoulder ached from the memory of when she lost all three of the limbs. She really hoped that Laura hadn't done the same thing to resurrect the dead mother she had been talking about.

Laura sighed sadly, noting their reactions. "I can tell that you did the same thing I did, which I shouldn't have. I know that now," she said, holding her left arm and looking down.

Joan whispered, "So you saw the Truth?"

Laura nodded sadly. "I was being stupid!"

"I'm sorry," Clarissa said, even though she knew it wasn't her fault.

Laura smiled a little at her sister. "It's not your fault."

"I know," she said, "I just wished you weren't; you didn't deserve to be in that situation."

Laura smiled sadly. "I do too."

"And I thought I was the only one who had been stupid enough to try the forbidden alchemy," Joan sighed, "It cost me much more than it gained. I'm lucky I still have my right arm." The others don't know about her three automail limbs.

Clarissa nodded. She stayed quiet, but her mind was going nuts. _'How weird is this? I manage to meet Joan the same day I realized that my sister made the same dumb mistake as me? I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I should have told my sister what happened, but then I think she tried it first. She should have told me about it sooner! I wouldn't have made this stupid mistake.'_

Laura sighed. "I know, I was being stupid, but I was only twelve."

Joan almost laughed. She did it when she was about the same age. Was she 11? Yeah, she was 11 when it all happened. _Don't forget 3 Oct 11._ It continued to be ironic. Same month and day as her mistake, and the year was the same as her age. She was in rehabilitation for about a year and a half then took off to make her father pay the bills. She still visited and kept in contact with her automail mechanic, Sean, and his sister, Cerise, who was the designer, for repairs and maintenance. Speaking of which, she really should go back for some maintenance, her automail felt a little loose.

"The past is the past and we need to move on from it," Joan said, looking at her feet. Automail feet actually. "So what exactly did you guys come to Central to do anyway?" she asked, changing the subject. Given their ages, the three of them should be in school. Laura was sixteen, Joan was fifteen, and Clarissa was fourteen, after all, but they were all alchemists, geniuses practically, and were too smart for school.

Laura looked at her sister. "You tell her, Clarissa."

"Let me guess," Joan said when they seemed hesitant to tell her. "You came to investigate the rumors about the chimera."

Laura nodded. "Yes, is that why you're here?"

Clarissa nodded.

"Figures. A lot of people are leaving, while the curious idiots come to investigate," Joan laughed, "I guess that makes me an idiot. I came here for multiple reasons, and that just happens to be one of them."

"Yeah, we're definitely idiots," Clarissa said in agreement. "Where else you headed?"

"Well, I already said I was looking for someone. And the last place is kind of a secret right now," she said, "Speaking of which, I should probably go. I'll see you when the chimeras attack." She said the part about the chimeras like she knew for a fact that they would soon.

"See ya," Clarissa said. After Joan was gone, Clarissa glanced at her sister. Her very curious side was getting the best of her. She really wanted to follow Joan. Laura noticed her sister looking at her.

"You want to follow her, don't you?"

Clarissa smiled mischievously. "I can't help but wonder where she's going..." she said.

Laura sighed. "Well, what are we going to do about it?"

"I don't know... follow her?" Clarissa said.

Laura smiled at her sister, "Then let's go!" She took off running the direction that Joan went, her sister running to catch up.

Clarissa quickly caught up to her sister, eagerly curious about the secret place Joan was headed to.


	2. Chimeras

Joan walked toward Central headquarters. She had to find out if her suspicions about a secret state alchemist program were true. If it was, she was determined to join it. She already had the watch. Joan hurried to Central headquarters, and she showed the guards her watch once she got there. As expected, they let her in. Civilians aren't normally allowed in headquarters without an appointment and she definitely did not have one. She wandered the halls until she found an official's office.

_"The President's office. Perfect."_ Joan thought upon reading the label above the door. She showed the guards her watch and they let her in without question. She saw the president sitting in his seat, doing some official documentation.

"And you are?" he asked, not in the mood to be interrupted from his important work.

"Someone who wants a question answered," Joan replied, somewhat ominously.

"They let you in for that?"

"No, they let me in because of this," she held up the watch, it's silver body glinting from the overhead lights. "I just want to know if there is still a state alchemist program."

After an hour or so of talking, Joan was told that there was indeed a secret state alchemist program, and he let her become one after she showed him her ability to use alchemy without a circle. Because there was no need to replace the one she had, even if the state alchemist watches were made differently and not out of real silver anymore, he let her use the watch she currently had. She was given the nickname "_Gemstone Alchemist_" though not entirely sure why, she was told that it was supposed to remain a secret.

So they could keep in contact anytime she was needed, Joan was also given a communicator. Which she hoped wasn't often. It was supposed to be inserted in her right ear, but it was uncomfortable and would probably be rarely used.

The President told her he would contact her if any news about her father, who she was searching dutifully for, was found. That was the whole reason she wanted to be an actual state alchemist. After failing to even find a clue as to his whereabouts over the past few years, she figured she could use the help.

Joan hoped that she'd run into Clarissa and Laura again. She liked them, but wasn't about to go searching the city for them. She stepped back outside and put her hands in her pockets. Not sure what she'd do before the chimeras either showed themselves or were found, she walked forward as she fidgeted with the communications device in her ear.

...

After a bit, Clarissa stopped running with no clue where Joan had gone. Stopping by Central Headquarters, she still didn't see Joan anywhere. Ready to give up, she noticed Joan walking away.

_Why was she coming out of Central headquarters?_ She wondered, her interest increasing ten-fold.

Laura caught up to her sister and saw Joan, and then she waved to her.

Joan walked past and didn't seem to notice the sisters until a moment later. Once she saw Laura wave whilst standing next to Clarissa, she silently scolded herself for being so careless as to be followed like that. Even if she had hoped to run into the two Mustangs, she didn't want to be spotted coming out of the Headquarters. "_How am I going to explain this without giving too much away? The State Alchemist thing is supposed to be a secret."_

Joan waved back. "_Crud. What am I supposed to tell them?"_ She thought, any possible excuses eluding her.

Laura laughed and informed Clarissa, "She looks nervous!"

Joan heard her laugh and decided to get her act together. She was a state alchemist now and couldn't show such weakness. She still wasn't sure what she was going to say, but now she looked more confident, and acting that way even helped her feel a little more confident. She'd think of something, maybe. Laura smiled at Joan as she came nearer. Joan smiled back and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought I left you guys at the cafe." She said, pretending she didn't know they had been following her.

Laura points at her sister like that's all there is to it, shifting as much blame as she could off of herself.

Clarissa smiled guiltily. "Sorry, my curiosity got the best of me. You shouldn't have mentioned that you were going someplace secret. I'm addicted to figuring out things like that."

Laura smiled and confirmed, in case there were any doubts, "She is."

"I guess I'd be the same." Joan shrugged. "Besides, it was only a suspicion I had that I had to see if it was true. I would've looked silly if I told you before I knew." She purposefully didn't tell them what she was doing in Central Headquarters, she hoped that they'd drop the subject, but somehow doubted it.

Just as Joan expected, Clarissa pressed for more information, "Well, what did you find out?"

"I'm not permitted to tell you." She said officially, unintentionally telling them that it was an even bigger secret than they originally thought, only spiking their interest.

Laura sighed and tried to act casual, though desire to know rang clear in her voice, "Okay, that's cool, I guess."

"_I guess she respects the fact that it's a secret more than Clarissa does."_ Joan thought. But that still didn't guarantee anything.

After an awkward moment of silence, Laura asked, "So what do you guys want to do?"

Joan shrugged, she hadn't been sure before and she wasn't now either. Mid-shrug, her State Alchemist communicator, the one that sat uncomfortably in her ear, made a beeping noise and a voice started coming from it that only the wearer could hear.

"Chimeras found on Main Street, they're coming from the sewers!" The voice, one of her fellow State Alchemists, announced. He seemed calm, so either the situation couldn't have been too bad, or they were all really good. Whatever the case, Joan decided she should go help and make it her first mission as a State Alchemist.

"I just remembered I have to be somewhere." She told Laura and Clarissa, turning and heading toward Main Street while forcing herself to walk casually with limited success.

Laura turned to Clarissa. "Why's she in such a hurry?" When her sister merely shrugged, she continued, "Never mind, let's just follow her."

Joan predicted that they'd follow her, so she would just have to lose them. She broke into a run the second she turned a corner and was out of sight, and as she did, she made a lot of unnecessary turns to lose her followers, but wouldn't lose any time getting there.

The Gemstone Alchemist got to a police tape that said "Do Not Cross" but crossed it anyway. It's not like she was a civilian anymore. The tape had been strategically placed so that anyone who didn't cross would not be able to see the battle very well, if at all. It didn't seem overly suspicious, but it helped hide the existence of the State Alchemists. And whoever did see the battle would think they were all vigilantes who were fighting off the chimeras.

Joan joined the fight, the other state alchemists having been informed about her right after she officially joined. The sounds of the battle became louder than any of the alchemists liked. It was probably audible for at least half a mile. Anyone at the "Do not cross" tape would be able to hear it clearly.

Joan was no stranger to fighting and was even pretty good at it, her dad having taught it to her when she was younger and all too happy to please him. But these chimeras were sure something. A chimera, large, grotesque, and resembling a mix between a gorilla and a crocodile, caught one of the other state alchemists and slapped him to the ground. He was unable to suppress a pained yell, which could be heard from the "Do not cross" tape. Immediately, a state alchemists that specialized in healing got to work easing his pain. They may not be able to completely heal him, but they could dull the pain and mend some tissue.

As she stopped to watch the medical alchemy, Joan thought she spotted a person's head, blue cloth wrapped around the forehead as a headband, peek out from underneath a manhole cover. It quickly retreated and Joan thought nothing more of it.

...

Stopping at the police tape that said "Do not cross", Laura debated on whether or not to cross it and get thrown in jail or don't cross it and stay free. The jail scenario was probably unlikely, a big scolding was more likely, but she wasn't too eager on risking it.

Laura gasped when she heard a big crash. She looked at the "Do not cross" tape and sighed, biting her lip. "_What do I do?"_ she thought to herself.

Laura suddenly bit down hard on her lip, drawing blood, when she heard someone cry out. Then she crossed the tape on a sudden impulse. She ran to where she heard the fighting, with Clarissa right behind.

Joan didn't notice Laura and Clarissa at first, but nearly panicked when she did. She found an opening to escape and went over to them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Didn't you see the 'Do not cross' tape? It says 'Do not cross' for a reason!"

The worried look on Laura's face wasn't very well hidden. "Well we weren't going to until we heard a person get hurt!" She said, defending herself and her sister.

"We've got it covered." Joan motioned to the guy who got hurt being taken care of by the medics. Joan was afraid they wouldn't leave but would insist on helping. The sentiment was appreciated, and the newly appointed State Alchemist could understand, but the situation wasn't for them to handle.

Laura looked around the ruins then at the big chimera, letting out a defeated sigh, "Fine, suit yourself, we won't help if you don't want us to! Come on Clarissa." she said, dragging Clarissa behind her. In truth, Laura wanted to stay and help, but she knew it wasn't the place to be at the moment. The worry could be seen on her face even as she turned away from Joan and headed away from the battle field.

Joan couldn't really stand to see their disappointment. "Wait! You... you can stay and help," She caved. Then added, "But don't get in the way! And I can't guarantee that you won't get in major trouble for this."

Laura turned around to look at Joan. "Okay, I got that part when I crossed the 'Do not cross' tape." she said with a smile then clapped her hands together and slapped them on the ground, making a giant earthen fist that slammed into the gorilla-crocodile chimera. It yelped like a dog in pain and Joan helped her, not that she even needed it.

"Try not to let the other alchemists see you do that. I don't know how they'll react. I just barely met them." Joan cautioned.

Soon enough, several chimeras were captured, including the gorilla-crocodile one, but several others also got away. But some captured was better than none. And no one died either, which was always good.

After that incident, Joan decided to catch a bus to the other side of the city so she could continue searching for her father. She doubted he'd be in Central, but maybe she could find someone who had seen him or has an idea where he could be.

"Guys, I'm headed to the eastern side of the city," she told Laura and Clarissa. "You can come with me if you want or you can stay."

Laura nodded. "Sure, we'll come!" she said, after deciding it with Clarissa over by a corner. They didn't have anything better to do. Neither could remember the reason they'd decided to come to Central over their midnight telephone call.

Joan nodded. "Alright." She didn't plan on telling them who she was looking for or that she was a State Alchemist until she knew she could fully trust them. Until then, it would remain her secret.

Following Joan to the nearest bus stop, Laura couldn't help but wonder what Joan was going to do in the East side of the city. She knew she shouldn't pry into other people's business, but it was still bothering her.

Joan sat on a bench and started absently swinging her silver pocket watch around in the air. Completely forgetting the significance the watch held.

A girl with long brown hair caught a glimpse of Joan's watch as she walked by. Once she got out of sight, she pulled a little notebook out of her pocket and wrote a quick note, folding it up. The note said: _"Are you a state alchemist?"_ Turning around, she walked past the bench and dropped the note in Joan's lap as she passed, continuing along the street.

Joan looked at the note that landed in her lap with surprise, glancing at her two new travel buddies, but neither one of them noticed the note or seemed to have been the one to drop it onto her lap. She opened and read it carefully, after folding it back up she looked around for who gave it to her.

"I'll be right back." She let Laura and Clarissa know, and then went to catch up with who she thought gave her the note. "Hey!" she called to the mysterious girl.

The girl looked back, and then went into an alley, gesturing for Joan to follow. Joan cautiously followed, unsure of what to expect. Why does this girl want to know if she's a State Alchemist? Most people though that they didn't exist anymore.

As she walked into the alley, the girl wrote another note with expert speed, as if that was the only way she communicated. As Joan walked into the alley, the girl handed the note to her. It said: "_I need your help. Can we meet behind the train station tonight?"_

Joan read it then said, "Wait, what makes you think I'm a State Alchemist?" Then she realized that she was still holding her pocket watch in her hand. "Oh, that." She chuckled nervously. She pretty much just gave herself away. She made a mental note to get better at keeping this a secret.

Joan sighed and said, "What time?"

The girl held up a finger. One o'clock.

"One o'clock? As in, one in the morning?" Joan said in disbelief, but agreed to meet the girl at the proposed time and place however suspicious it seemed. She walked back to the bus stop and sat on the bench. "_One in the morning. I'm going to have to set my alarm."_

The girl then continued on to where she was headed before seeing Joan.

The bus she had been waiting for came and she had to tell the driver she wasn't getting on, leaving Laura and Clarissa confused.

"Why aren't you getting on?" Laura asked with a slightly tilted head.

Joan sighed, "Something came up and I have to stay here a little longer." She's still wasn't happy about getting up at one in the morning. But the girl did say she needed help, and it must be serious if she needed to get help from a State Alchemist. "But we do need to find a hotel to stay the night at."

"You can stay at the hotel I'm staying at." Laura offered. Joan accepted the offer, not in the mood to search for one herself.

"We might as well go there now. Unless you have anything you guys need to do now."

Laura shrugged. "I don't have anything to do now and I don't think Clarissa does either."

"You'll have to lead the way. I don't know where you're staying." Joan motioned for her to lead them there.

Laura nodded and started walking. When they arrived, she proclaimed, "Here it is."

"Not the best hotel in town, but far from the worst. How did you afford this?" Joan asked. Laura by no means appeared to come from a rich background, and was too young to have a reasonable-paying salary.

Laura frowned. "Poppy's mom helped me afford it." She answered, a hint of sadness prevalent in her voice.

"I see." Joan said with a sympathetic frown, remembering the story of how Laura was living with her friend. "You really loved your mom, didn't you?"

Laura nodded. "Yeah I did, I was the one who lived with her, and watched her die." She forced a smile, though it was weak. She changed the subject, "Well then, let's go inside."

"I loved my three siblings too." Joan reminisced quietly before she realized she was actually talking. She didn't really want to talk about this, but it just started coming out. "That's why I tried to bring them back. It was the biggest mistake of my life. I lost my legs and my left arm." She quickly apologized, suddenly realizing what she was talking about and said, "I'm sorry to bother you about it." She abruptly rushed to a different room and jumped onto the bed and went to sleep, tears staining the pillow as the memory of the terrible night came back to her.

Laura and Clarissa, the mood much too sullen for a casual conversation, went to their rooms and plopped onto the beds, falling asleep.


	3. The Auction

**A/N This is a shorter chapter, they'll become more exciting later as the story becomes more in depth. Just keep in mind that this started as a role-play and turned out pretty well considering that. Sorry if the writing isn't that good yet, just bear with me, it will get better as each role player improves.**

Around one o'clock Joan's alarm rang and she got up, still tired, and grabbed what she thought she might need. She wasn't sure if the alarm woke Laura or Clarissa, but Joan still needed to go. She walked out the door a little louder than she would have preferred and headed toward the place she agreed to meet the mysterious girl.

Once at her destination, Joan waited patiently. The girl dropped from the building next to Joan then put her finger to her lips and gestured for Joan to follow.

Joan followed and asked, "Where are we going?"

The girl glared at Joan for a second as she put her finger to her lips again, telling her to be quiet. Then she started walking through the train tracks to an abandoned area full of scraps of junk metal and other discarded objects of the sort.

Joan was quiet from there on and just followed. She looked around in awe at the tunnel that she doubted anyone knew about. What in the world could be down here? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

Joan was led through the tunnels until the pair got to a hidden area overlooking a large, open room that was full of people. Many of them were rich-looking people sitting around looking at a platform with people in chains. There was a man standing on the platform, auctioning off what must have been slaves.

She took in the scene around her, aware that this definitely wasn't good. She got multiple bad feelings about this place. The people in chains led her to suspect slavery was involved. She was about to ask the girl, whose name Joan still didn't know, if this was a slave auction, but remembered that she'd just get shushed and just watched.

As Joan watched the room, the girl slipped away and went down to the room. She took her place next to the stage and pretended that she was enjoying what was going on. The auction continued, with the slaves being brought up one at a time and the people bidding on them.

...

Laura found that couldn't sleep after the sound of Joan leaving woke her up, so she left and followed Joan quietly. _"Where is she going?"_ She thought to herself. Following Joan through to a cave, she began hearing voices, and then saw Joan crouched low and looking down at the auction with disgust.

Watching on in horror, Joan was starting to understand what was going on. The girl was like a double agent, metaphorically. She looked content to be there, but Joan could spot the fake emotion, however good at acting she was.

The auctioneer auctioned the slaves from one slave trader at a time. Soon he got to the slaves from the girl who had brough Joan there. Gesturing to her, he said, "Now here are the slaves from Selene. She's got a reputation of having the best slaves in Amestris!" He then brought up the first slave, an Ishvalan girl with shoulder-length white hair and red eyes. He started the bidding.

Laura walked quietly until she crouched next to Joan and whispered quietly. "What's going on?"

Joan put a finger to her lips and mouth the words, "I'll explain later." Laura nodded and watched silently as well, trying to gather what was going on. Laura couldn't help but wonder why Joan was here and why she was watching it so intently.

Figuring that the Selene girl wanted to show Joan the auction so she could tell the other state alchemists and destroy the slavery business, she pulled out her phone to make a call. Realizing it probably wasn't a good time, she put the cell phone back in her pocker. It would have to wait until later. Right then, Joan just needed to get a better grasp on the situation.

The next slave was a girl with long, almost black hair in a braid. She had bright blue eyes and wore what looked like a Xingese martial arts outfit. The bidding started and she ended up being bought by the same man who won the bid on the Ishvalan girl before her.

Joan watched the bidding going on and felt her anger growing at all the people who supported owning and auctioning people. She resisted the urge to scream and yell at every last one of them, instead she watched off in enraged silence.

Selene looked ashamed for a second before controlling her expression again, hoping none of the other slavers had seen her façade slip. Selene saw the man who had bought the two slaves. He was the owner of a small hotel in the run-down part of town. They would probably be made to work as barmaids. She hoped that Joan was watching and trying to find a way to help. She would have to give the alchemist a way to contact her later, such as her cell phone number.

Joan saw Selene's expression change for a split-second, but didn't think anyone else noticed. She seemed ashamed to let those two go. Joan decided that she would free those two slaves before leaving.

Laura titled her head in confusion, still unable to understand the situation. She was still tired and had come in later. Perplexed, she thought,_"What's going on?"_

Joan couldn't stand doing nothing any longer. She found the two slaves in the crowd and sneaked away as quietly as she could and caught up with them, pretending to be a bidder. She even bid on a slave, and was thankfully outbid. She had to blend in.

Laura stayed where she was, not wanting to intrude on whatever Joan's plan was to rescue the two slaves. Laura watched Joan silently, making sure that nothing happened to her or the two slaves while they were trying to get away.

"Hey." she called out quietly to the two slaves.

The two girls looked at Joan quizzically.

"Who are you?" the dark-haired one asked.

"I'll explain later. But I want to get you guys out of here. We'll have to do it carefully." Joan said.

Glancing around, the girls took in their surroundings. With all the people around it might be better to wait until the auction was over so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves.

"Do you have a plan?" the Ishvalan girl asked Joan.

Joan waved her hand in a "so-so" manner. "I figured that I would secretly follow you guys until you and the guy who bought you were out of sight. Then I ambush him and we all run free." It wasn't the best plan, but it may work with some luck.

Soon after she finished talking, the auctioneer announced that the auction was over. The guy who bought the two girls started leading them away. Joan motioned for Laura to stay where she was, hoping she would see the gesture from their varying positions. Then Joan started secretly following them down the tunnels, careful to at least attempt to memorize each turn.

...

As Joan followed them, Selene headed back to where she left Joan, finding Laura there instead. Confused for a second, she then recognized her from sitting with Joan at the bus stop. She then handed Laura a slip of paper with a phone number on it so she can give it to Joan, then silently left. Laura looked at it quizzically for a moment.

...

Meanwhile, the man led the girls out of the room and through the tunnels until, eventually, they were out of sight of anyone else. The two girls stopped, making the man stop and turn around.

"What do you think you're doing?" he growled, "Why did you stop?"

Joan seemed to jump out of nowhere and ambushed him. She quickly knocked him out and motioned for them to run. They found their way out of the tunnels and back to the train station.

"Come on, I need to get someone and I don't want to risk leaving you guys here alone." Joan said. They headed in once again to get Laura.

There was a flash of light as the darker-haired girl used her necklace, which had a transmutation circle engraved on it, to perform alchemy and get rid of the chains. Then they followed Joan back into the tunnels. Joan noticed and was happy to know that one of the girls knew alchemy, it definitely made things easier. They met Laura back in the tunnel and they all ran out of the tunnels.

"Where are we going?" asked the Ishvalan girl.

"To a hotel in the city," Joan replied.

Laura handed Joan the paper Selene gave her. The State Alchemist looked at it and recognized it as a phone number, assuming it was Selene's. They all casually made their way to the hotel. Laura sighed in relief to know that Clarissa was still asleep by the time they got back.

"We have to leave Central," Joan announced. "I don't want to risk those slavers finding us." She shook Clarissa awake and they all got ready to leave.

"Thanks for the help back there." The dark-haired girl said. "By the way, my name's Tessema. You can call me Tess."

"And my name's Takara," the Ishvalan girl said. "What are your names?"

"I'm Joan." she said, then motioned to Laura, "This is Laura and her sister Clarissa. Where are you two from?"

"I'm from Xing." Tess said.

"I'm not sure where I'm from." Takara admitted. "I've been a slave all my life."

Laura smiled reassuringly and walked over to Takara, saying, "Well, you're not anymore."

"Thanks." Takara said, gratitude clear on her face.

"I'm just from the Western section of Amestris, the city of Clearwater." Joan said. "And I don't know about these two. I met them yesterday."

"So, when are we leaving?" Tess asked.

Laura shrugged. "Don't ask me, ask her." She tilted her head slightly at Joan as if to pass the question onto her.

"We'll leave in the morning. The buses and trains don't come until then." Joan said.

"Then what did you wake me up in the middle of the night for?" Clarissa questioned irritably, rubbing sleep from her eyes before collapsing herself back into bed.


	4. A Couple of Theives

**A/N More characters are being added! :D Lots of characters get added every so often in the story and sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of them, since most of them are mine. Then I basically have to adopt a role-player's OCs because they quit role playing and allowed me to use them. So last I checked, I had over 30 characters, last I checked. Main characters, side characters, or otherwise. FYI, these chapters are posted on dA (though I added extra editing here, kinda like a third draft) by my cousin, taichikitty(add .deviantart and .com to the end put into the URL box). The chapters there are posted with images so you can see what the characters look like, because the descriptions in this are kinda pathetic at best. Check it out at: fma-generationsafter ( and .com and put into URL box)**

**...**

The next morning, the first thing Joan did after she woke up was check her phone to see if Selene replied. Before going to bed, Joan had texted her saying that Tessema and Takara were free and safe and that they would be leaving Central in the morning. She didn't say where they were going, since they didn't even know at that point.

Selene had texted back saying, "_Thanks for your help. Keep in touch."_

Tess and Takara were waking up as well and started getting ready to leave. Laura was already awake and packing the few possessions she had carried with her.

Once they were all ready, they went to the train station to catch one to Eastern Amestris. They got on and took their seats. Once they did, Joan took the opportunity to reply to Selene, _"You're welcome. And I will."_ Tess noticed Joan texting.

"Can I borrow your phone to text my brother?" She asked. "My family is probably worried sick by now. I was supposed to be back from my training months ago."

"Sure." Joan handed her the phone once she finished composing her message. Absent mindedly, she started playing with her state alchemist watch again. Clarissa already knew about it, but Joan wasn't sure about the others.

Tess sent her brother a text telling him that she was fine and safe, and then handed the phone back to Joan.

"Nice watch." Takara said. Since she had been a slave all her life, she didn't recognize it as a state alchemist's watch. Tess recognized it, but only because she had been planning with Selene on ways to free the slaves and Selene had shown her what one looked like.

"Thanks." Joan said. She debated about putting it back in her pocket, but figured that they've all seen it by now and she was bored. So she continued meddling with it. Eventually, they made it to a town the in the East. They decided it was a good place to get off and it was around lunchtime anyway. It was pointed out by Laura that they had skipped breakfast in their rush to leave and it was due time for some food.

"Hmm...What are you guys in the mood for?" Tess asked the group.

Takara was excited. "I've never had much of a choice what to eat."

"Then why don't we let Takara choose?" Joan suggested. As Takara looked at all the options, Joan noticed a teenage boy, with a foreign look that she thought she recognized as Xingese to his features, secretly taking some food from a shop without paying.

"I'll be right back." She informed the nearest person, Clarissa, and began walking toward him when he noticed her and began running. Joan chased after him. He turned a corner and Joan followed, but he vanished when she got there.

As Takara looked around, trying to decide what to get, Tess noticed Joan follow the teen boy into the alley and decided to follow. Catching up to Joan, she noticed that Joan was confused and the Xingese teen was nowhere in sight.

"Did you know him?" she asked.

"No, but I saw him steal some food." Joan replied, still looking around for him.

"Who are you looking for?" A female voice asked suddenly, causing Joan to nearly jump out of her skin. They turned to see a woman wearing all black with two swords strapped to her back, the outfit reminded both Tess and Joan of a ninja. She looked Xingese, like the boy Joan had been chasing.

"Someone I saw steal some food." Joan told her, not sure why she confided in the threatening looking woman.

"I see." She paused for the briefest of moments then continued, "I'll be back." She climbed the side of the building and was gone.

...

Meili, the woman wearing all black and swords, climbed the building and headed toward where she sensed the Prince's chi. She looked down from the top of a building into a small alley and saw him with his legs spanning across the width of it and holding himself up around two stories high.

"Prince Jian, you must pay for the food you took or that girl will be mad." She flatly informed im.

Jian put his hands in his pockets and pulled them inside out. "Sorry, I don't have any money." He stated casually, as if it didn't matter.

Meili sighed in exasperation and pulled him onto the top of the building and back to where Joan and Tess were waiting. Jian had a piece of bread stuffed in his mouth.

"Wait a minute, you look familiar." Tess said to Jian. "I think I might have seen you before." Stepping a bit closer she took a good look at him. "Yeah, I think I've seen you at the palace before."

"Palace? You've been to the palace?" He asked with renewed interest after he finished eating the piece of bread he had. "Hold up, which one? I don't remember seeing you."

"Prince." Meili interrupted. "You have to find a way to pay for the food you took."

"But I don't have any money and I'm hungry!" He complained. Then muttered to himself, "It's not like I could find enough donations to get what I need to feed my appetite."

"I was training there with the martial arts master for a while." Tess recounted then did a double take, asking in astonishment, "Wait, you're a prince?"

"Yeah." He said. "My name's Jian Yao, 8th Prince of Xing. I'd rather we skip the formalities as I'm in no mood to bow to my apprehenders."

"What are you doing in Amestris?" Tess asked, amazed.

"That's actually a funny story." He chuckled nervously. "I was kind of kidnapped by assassins, got away, then chased down by my new assassin friend Meili here." He pointed to the ninja-woman he was with.

"I'm not with them anymore." Meili defended in the form of a statement.

"I know, I know." The 8th Prince of Xing put his hands up, almost as if to calm the perfectly composed ex-assassin.

"That's kind of what happened to me." Tess said. "I finished my training and was on my way home when I got kidnapped and almost killed by these people who thought I was a princess. I ended up getting injured and they left me for dead when they found out I wasn't who they thought I was. Then I was captured by slavers and became a slave until Joan here helped me and a new friend escape."

"They're from the Yu clan. They want the Prince of their clan to become the next emperor. To guarantee their success, they're taking out as many of the the other princes and princesses." Jian explained. Then added, "Meili told me that.

"So why don't you go to Xing and stop them?" Joan asked.

"The guards are supposed to take care of that, while we stay hidden. Apparently it's not the job of royalty to fight assassins unless necessary." Jian rolling his eyes as if the prospect were ridiculous. "Besides, I was headed back there anyway. However slowly."

"Have they managed to kill any of the princes and princesses yet?" Tess asked. Maybe she could tell her brother, Crispin, and he could warn them.

Jian looked at Meili, who said, "They have killed approximately six, all from the less powerful clans. I wasn't part of those missions because Kang found them unworthy of my skills."

"There you have it." Jian shrugged nonchalantly. "Six. Some of them have been warned, but some are still unaware."

Tess looked at Joan and asked, "Can I borrow your phone again?"

"Yeah, sure." Joan pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Tess. "What for?"

"I want to tell my brother so he can warn them. He could still be at the palace finishing up his training." She took the phone and sent him a text, telling him what was going on.

"That's a good idea. Maybe everything will clear up over there," Joan said.

"Hopefully." Jian said. "I think I'll stay in Amestris for a bit, see the sights. What do you think Meili?"

"Whatever you want." she sighed. "I suppose returning to Xing can wait awhile longer."

"Alright then!" He started to walk away, but Joan stopped him and held out her hand, demanding money or the food back. He sighed and handed her the food he hadn't already eaten.

"Looks like we're going to have to keep an eye on you." Tess laughed. "We should probably head back to the others. I bet they are wondering where we went."

"Yeah, we don't want to keep them waiting too long. I wonder if Takara chose something to eat." Joan said and they walked back with Jian and Meili following. Perhaps the Prince was hoping to get a free meal out of them, still not satisfyingly filled.

When they got back to the others, they had all bought the different foods that they wanted and were busy eating. Takara looked up, grinning, when she saw them.

"Where have you guys been?" she asked, "We started eating without you!" Then she noticed the other two with them. "Who are those two?"

"Just a thieving prince and his assassin buddy." Joan said.

"That's one way to put it." Jian laughed. "Oh, hey," He poked Joan. "About paying for the food..."

"I'll pay for it." Joan sighed. "But you owe me."

"But if it wasn't for you I'd be off the hook," Jian pointed out.

"You still owe me." Joan persisted.

"Fair enough. Oh! You got a lot of food!" Jian and Meili sat down to eat, followed by Joan and Tess.

Laura looked up at Jian and Meili. "Hi, I don't believe we've met, I'm Laura." She introduced with a smile.

"I'm Jian Yao." He replied, smiling back and even offering a slight informal bow. He felt she deserved it because she hadn't stopped his food snatching.

Laura smiled. "It's wonderful to meet you, Jian."

"Nice to meet you too, Laura. This is Meili. She doesn't talk much. Her being an assassin and all." Jian joked.

Laura glanced at her sister curiously, baffled at the sheer silence from Clarissa, then turned back to Jian and Meili. "She's an assassin? That's cool."

Meili turned to Laura. "Yes, I was an assassin." She confirmed, with a slight emphasis to 'was'. "I would have preferred if the Prince wouldn't tell everyone that."

Soon they were all introduced and happily eating their food. Wondering how the assassins mistook Tess for one of the princesses, Jian asked her.

"Well, I have been training at the palace for quite a while, and I guess some people just assumed that I lived there and was a princess." She shrugged, "I even had an escort that was assigned to take me home. Obviously I didn't end up at home."

"The assassins sure slipped up," Jian laughed. "What palace were you at anyway? Chan? Zhao? Or were you at the palace I live in, Yao? You said you've seen me before, I don't get the chance to visit many other palaces, with the looming threat of assassination too great for any of them to risk."

"Yeah, they did." Tess laughed. "I sure gave them a run for their money. I was even jumping through trees and throwing figs at them." She said with a grin. "Anyway, I was at the Yao palace. The master there has taught people in my family for years."

"Fig fight!" Jian laughed and nudged Meili with his elbow and was rewarded with glare. "Anyway, who's your master? I might have learned from him."

"Master Guan." Tess replied.

"Ah, right. Guan. The guy who liked to chase me." Jian reminisced with a smile. Reverting the subject back the princess situation, he continued, "They should know that there's no princess for the Yao clan. They must've thought the non-existent princess was a secret when they saw you there a lot."

"Something like that," Tess smiled. "I did spend a lot of time exploring the palace when I had free time. Maybe they thought I was your secret twin sister."

"I guess that would make sense. Though I don't have a full-blooded sister, only half." Jian said.

It was a pretty funny idea, but it was a possible scenario. The other clans wouldn't have been happy if the Yao clan, one of the most powerful clans, had two royal children. Whether they were twins or not, there would be an uproar and one would have to be killed to satisfy them. To appease the protesters, the Emperor may have allowed the other clans to choose which one lost their life. If one was a boy and the other a girl, the other clans wouldn't want to risk the male taking the throne. So if Jian really did have a sister, they'd try and keep her a tightly wound secret.

"Hey Joan, I need to talk to you sometime, ok?" Clarissa suddenly said. She hadn't said much as the group ate, and after she had asked her question, she went back to quietly enjoying her meal. She seemed to have a lot on her mind, something that was bothering her profusely.

Clarissa's sudden question surprised Joan. "Alright. How about now? We can step over there and talk privately if you want."

"Ok," Clarissa stood up. She walked over to where Joan had mentioned, and waited for her.

Joan met up with Clarissa out of earshot from the others. "What is it, Clarissa?"

Clarissa frowned. "First, I want to know what's going on. You're hiding something, and I don't like it. Why could you cross the, 'do not cross' tape, and fight the chimeras without getting in trouble? And you act like it's your duty to make this world perfect. You didn't have to help those two escape, but you did." She stared at Joan. She would be able to tell if Joan was lying.

"Well you see..." Joan started to explain. "I know I didn't have to save those two, but I couldn't just leave them! And the tape thing... well..." she trailed off, knowing that Clarissa could tell if she was telling a terrible lie and wouldn't leave without an answer. "The thing is... I'm a state alchemist. But most people aren't supposed to know. That's why I wouldn't tell you the secret place I was headed back when we met in Central." She admitted. Joan continued to explain her situation. It felt pretty good to tell someone and not keep it a secret.

...

Looking over at Joan and Clarissa, Takara said, "I wonder what they are talking about over there."

Jian shrugged. "We might find out when they get back."

"Prince," Meili suddenly addressed Jian.

"What?" He groaned. She whispered something in his ears. "I'm sorry, ok? Just drop it already."

Laura smiled, "Wait, he's a prince?"

"Yes, he's a prince of Xing," Tess told Laura.

"The 8th prince of Xing, heir of the Yao Clan to be exact." Meili said. It was difficult to tell he was a prince by the way he acted, though there were a few subtle hints like his stronger-than-average dislike of public restrooms. The Prince in question was no longer present for the conversation, having run off to use the bathroom.

"That's so cool!" Laura said, amazed.

"Cool?" Meili questioned. "What's so cool about having assassins sent after you all the time?"

Shocked, Laura sullenly apologized, "I didn't know assassins were sent after him, I'm sorry."

"What else did you expect? He is a prince. There are many princes seeking to be heir and ascend to the throne. He belongs to one of the more powerful clans, and in a better position to take up the duty as emperor. To solve that, the easiest solution is to exterminate him. If they can get past his bodyguards and defeat him, of course. The guards are usually very talented, and he himself has been trained to fight." Meili explained to Laura. She didn't mention that she was one of the assassins sent to kill him.

Laura nodded. "Oh, I see now."

Meili continued, "It's a common stereotype that princes and princesses are pampered. When in truth, a fair amount of them wish they could be normal people, while the normal people wish they could be royalty. It's something I just recently came to understand as ironic."

Laura nodded again. "Well, I don't want to be royalty, never did, never will. No offense to him."

"The more you learn about the life of royalty, the less you want to be one." Tess said.

"So true, so true." Laura agreed.

Jian returned from his trip to the men's room and missed most of the conversation and was left a little bit confused, but decided figuring it out wasn't worth the effort. Meili would let him know if it was important.

"He takes no offense." Meili assured told Laura.

"If you say so." Jian said, shrugging.

Laura nodded and smiled. "That's good."

"So where are you guys headed?" Jian asked.

Laura looked over at Joan and Clarissa then turned back. "We're leaving Central."

"You already did that." Meili pointed out. "This isn't Central. You're in the Eastern sector of Amestris."

"She does have a point." Jian added. "You're pretty far from Central now. Was that your intention?"

Laura frowned, realizing her mistake. "I'm so oblivious." she said as she heard some commotion around the block. "What's going on there?"

"Just some girl running from some people. Cops, it seems like. She must be a bad thief." Jian informed, like nothing was wrong with that. The commotion was out of sight, so Jian couldn't see what was going on. Leaving Laura confused as to how he could tell. Meili was acting normal as well, like there was no commotion at all.

Glancing at Joan as the State Alchemist returned, Tess asked, "Think we should go check it out?"

"Sure, why not?" Joan said, now that she was done explaining everything to Clarissa. They went around the corner and looked to see what was going on.

...

Anzhela ran for her life, holding a mere apple. "_What am I going to do?"_ She thought desperately as she looked for an escape route, then saw another group of people coming to watch her daring escape. Anzhela looked at them closely and saw they were giving her weird looks, but she turned away from them and kept running, more concerned about her own situation.

They all watched her run away. Joan saw the apple she was holding and wondered if she stole it, debating whether to chase after her. Jian took off running, beating her to the pursuit, closely followed by Meili. Palace life was so boring, so he took every chance he had to escape from it. He started chasing the girl because he wanted an excuse to enjoy himself with a bit of a thrill.

"Prince, what are you doing?" Meili asked as she ran next to him.

"Just having some fun!" Jian grinned. They quickly caught up and ran alongside her. "Hello." he greeted casually.

Anzhela turned to Jian, surprised. "Who are you and what do you want?" She demanded in a foreign accent that Jian quickly identified as Drachman.

"I just said hello." Jian replied, mocking feeling insulted. He dropped the mask fairly quickly and said, "Don't worry, I won't turn you in. I was just taking some food myself. Though I took much more than an apple." He held out a loaf of bread that Joan had failed to confiscate that he seemed to get out of nowhere. "I can help you get away from the cops."

Anzhela looked at him, amazed. In her astonishment, she nearly ran into the corner of a building, narrowly avoiding it as she asked, "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?" He said, like he had no idea what she was talking about. He was still holding the bread. "Do you want help getting out of here or what?"

Anzhela smiled. "Yes, I would, thank you."

...

"This is weird." Joan said. "But I must say that Jian was a better thief. He stole an armful of food, and she stole and apple. The weirdest part is that the police care that much." It was a odd thing to bring up, but true.

Laura watched the scene with a confused expression. "What's going on?"

Takara looked around at the others. "Should we follow them?"

Laura shrugged. "Ask Joan."

"I say we follow them and try to keep them out of trouble." Tess said, and then started running after them.

Joan followed Tess after agreeing to go after them. Laura and Clarissa sighed and followed Joan and Tess.

...

Jian grabbed her wrist as soon as they turned a corner and helped her climb the building. Anzhela was slow and they were losing precious time for escape. Meili rolled her eyes and helped to speed up the process. Soon enough they were on top of the building and out of sight from the cops. To the law enforcement officers, it would seem like they vanished into thin air.

Jian laughed, "That was fun! A little closer than I would normally cut it, but we still made it."

Anzhela smiled shyly at Jian. "Thank you. I'm Anzhela by the way."

"I'm Jian Yao." He replied still with a big grin on his face. "You don't sound like you're from here. Where are you from?" He asked, wanting to make sure his Drachman assumtion was correct. Meili stayed silently behind him.

Anzhela frowned. "I'm from Drachma, but no one's fond of me there." She said, looking to the North with a unreadable expression on her face. Noticing his voice, she observed, "You don't sound like you're Amestrian either."

"Is my accent that obvious? My and my ninja looking companion are from Xing. Do they not like you because stole stuff from Drachma too?" Jian asked, still smiling. Seriousness wasn't his forte. "You're not a very good thief." He pointed out. He pulled out the bread again, and began eating it while he was hiding from the others.

Anzhela frowned. "That's because I'm new at it."

"You need to be a little more secretive about it." He said after swallowing a mouthful of the bread. "Even the novices know to take it when no one is looking." He took an apple out of one of his sleeves and bit into it. She recognized it as the apple she had been holding a moment before.

Anzhela frowned, not in the mood to fight him for the apple. "Yeah, well, you're right. I'm not so good at it, but it's the only thing I can do besides starve to death," she snapped bitterly.

"I didn't mean anything by it," Jian calmed the distraught teenage Drachman. "If you haven't starved yet you must be doing an okay job."

Jian quickly finished the apple he had and was about to finish his bread but decided to give it to Anzhela instead. There was less than half left, but it was still something. "You'll need more than apples." He informed as he held the bread out to her.

Anzhela smiled and took it with a smile, grateful for his kindness. "Thank you Jian."

...

The group continued their currently fruitless pursuit, turning the corner they saw the policemen go and found some thoroughly confused cops. They looked at the baffled police officers, baffled as well. Laura stopped next to Joan with a confusion etched into her features as plain as day.

"How do we find them now?" Takara asked.

"By following their chi." Tess said with a grin. She closed her eyes and focused on sensing their chi while the others watched. After a minute, she opened her eyes.

"Well?" Takara looked at her expectantly.

"Found them."

"Where?"

"Up there." Tess pointed to the roof.

"Of course they're up there." Joan said, not entirely sure what the chi-talk was. She heard a little bit about it, but never though much of it. "Let's go get them."

Tess quickly scaled the building, as the others followed father behind with the gap growing rapidly between them.

"Still amazes me how quickly she can climb," Takara said, awestruck.

"She does this often?" Joan asked, struggling to scale the wall.

"I've only seen her climb once or twice," Takara said sheepishly.

Jian and Meili sensed her scaling the building and both sat calmly. "Looks like we have a guest," He said, waiting for Tess get to the top, which didn't take long.

Reaching the roof, Tess looked at the three sitting there. "What'cha doing up here?" she asked.

Anzhela looked up at Tess then turned to Jian, asking, "Friend of yours?" she asked with a tilted head.

"Kinda. I only met them today." Jian told Anzhela then turned to Tess, "Just talking. How'd you find us so quick? Did Master Guan teach you how to sense chi?" His smile just didn't seem like it wanted to leave his face.

Anzhela's face showed a little blush, a little sprout of emotion growing, but she turned away slightly to avoid her blush from being seen and bit her lip. "I see."

"Yep." Tess smiled then glanced back over her shoulder. "Looks like I climb a lot faster than the others."

"I would seem so." Meili said, watching the others climb the wall slowly. Jian suddenly decided to stand up and jump down from the building, quickly followed by Meili. The moment they hit the ground, they both rolled so their ankles didn't break.

"Are you guys coming or what?" He teased from the ground as they finally reached the top.

Anzhela smiled a little but didn't follow, afraid the cops were still down there trying to find her and take her to prison.

Laura groaned at Jian. "Really? You can't seriously do that." She called to him. Her reply was a mischievous smirk from the Prince.

Tess rolled her eyes then looked at Anzhela. "Maybe we should do some introductions before climbing back down. I'm Tess."

"And I'm Joan." she introduced herself to Anzhela. "I'm assuming you already met Jian and Meili."

Anzhela nodded as Laura walked up and stood next to Joan. "I'm Laura," she said with a small smile.

"I'm Clarissa, Laura's younger sister."

"I'm Anzhela Erin, it's nice to meet you." she said in her Drachman accent.

"I'm Takara." She said, walking over to stand next to Tess.

"Where are you from? You've got an interesting accent," Tess asked.

"I'll be down there, making sure Jian and Meili don't run off," Joan announced, and then jumped down to the ground. The two were still waiting patiently.

Anzhela bit her lip. "I'm from Drachma." She said quietly.

"I'm from Xing," Tess said. Pointing to Jian and Meili she then said, "Obviously those two are from Xing also, if you didn't already know that."

"And I don't know where I'm from," Takara added.

Anzhela smiled. "It's nice to meet you," she said voice timid and quiet.

"They're taking a long time." Jian complained from the street below. Meili and Joan remained silent, ignoring his complaints. Laura sighed and waved to Anzhela as she made her way down.

Jian pretended to be asleep while standing, faking a loud snore. Laura rolled her eyes at his immature behavior. He really didn't seem very princely for a prince.

"I guess they're waiting for us," Takara said.

"Let's go, then," Tess jumped to the ground with Takara following.

Anzhela sat on the roof, watching them with sad eyes full of longing to join them and feel like she belonged somewhere again, to belong with someone. Tess looked back up at the Drachman, wondering if she was going to come down.

Anzhela bit her lip as she looked down at them. "_I can't come down, the cops will be at me the second I get down."_ She thought to herself.

Jian cracked open an eye and saw Anzhela hesitating at the top. "Hey, are you coming down or what?" He called to her, no longer pretending to sleep.

Anzhela shook her head slowly, saddened that she couldn't join them.

"Oh, come on!" Jian called up to her. "You won't get caught! Come down here before I carry you down." He insisted.

Anzhela sighed and jumped down, still hesitant but more willing, landing in a crouch. "Happy?"

"Yes." Jian replied with a smile. "The cops here give up the chase soon after you disappear. It's useful when you're hiding."

Anzhela nodded. "It's thanks to you Jian, I owe you one."

"It was nothing." He said nonchalantly.

Anzhela shrugged, taking a bite out of an apple that she seemed to get out of nowhere and said, "If you say so." Jian let himself laugh at the trick.

"You should come with us." Jian insisted. He never could get enough company. It rarely mattered who it was, he just liked being with people. But it wasn't as if Anzhela knew that.

"Yeah," Tess agreed. "We can help keep you out of trouble."

"The more, the merrier!" Takara grinned.

Anzhela smiled shyly. "Are you sure I can come?"

"Why else would we have asked you to stay?" Jian pointed out.

"It's fine, really. You should stay." Joan encouraged as well. "I'll let you off the hook for stealing. And with us, you won't have to steal anything."

"Yeah, stealing isn't necessary because Joan will pay for everything." Jian jabbed a thumb in the alchemist's direction.

Anzhela smiled and played with her short, fiery-red hair.

Joan couldn't help but notice how weird of a group this was: three Amestrians, One Ishvalan, Three Xingese, and One Drachman. She found it funnier when she realized that Jian was the only boy in their group.

Clarissa stood nearby, wondering what would happen next. Laura's eyes wandered the area.

Joan noticed and asked, "Are you looking for something Laura?"

Laura turned to Joan. "No, I'm just looking around at stuff," she replied.

"We should probably find a place to spend the night, it's getting late." Joan pointed out. Time sure did fly, they hadn't noticed the sun going down.

Laura nodded, agreeing with Joan.

"Hmm...I thought we were just eating lunch..." Tess said. "We must have been talking and stuff for hours."

"That does seem weird. I guess we said and did more than we thought." Joan said, shrugging. Laura and Anzhela both nodded in agreement.

"Either way, we should be looking for a place to stay the night," Takara said.

"Yeah," Joan agreed. "Let's go find a place."


	5. A Missing Prince And A Homunculus

Joan woke up and got ready early in the morning, and then waited for the others to wake up so they could go catch a train. It probably wasn't a good idea to stay in one place for very long when they had escaped slaves with them. Tess and Takara woke up and stretched not long after the State Alchemist. Up and bright-eyed within moments, Tess looked at Joan.

"Where do you think we should go next?" Tess asked. "You've probably realized that we should keep moving since Takara and I are escaped slaves."

Joan nodded. "I'm not sure where we'll go yet. South? What do you guys think?"

Laura shrugged. "Honestly, I don't care where we go."

"South sounds good." Tess nodded.

"Ok." Clarissa agreed.

"I guess we should find a train to catch." Takara said.

"Then that's where we'll go." Joan decided.

Once they were on the train, Tess feeling a chill run down her spine, looked around the area. Both Jian and Meili got a similar feeling, disturbed by the presence they felt. There was a girl sitting in the car staring at the group. She had medium brown hair and friendly dark blue eyes and looked like she wanted to talk to them.

_"This girl gives me a weird feeling,"_ Tess thought.

Glancing at the girl, Jian suspected something wasn't normal on the train, an overwhelming presence bothering him. The others, however, didn't notice anything. Joan claimed one of the seats nearby the girl that stared at them. Takara and Tess took seats by Joan and their observer smiled at them, with Takara smiling back kindly.

Uncertainly, Joan waved back at the girl, the prospect of random people staring smiling at her a little disturbing. The constant smile Jian wore was oddly missing while Meili's expression was as impossible to read as it was when they met her. The girl decided to introduce herself to Takara, since Takara was the friendliest.

"Hi, I'm Emily,"

"I'm Takara," she replied. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Emily grinned.

The two of them continued a friendly conversation for a while. After a few minutes Tess relaxed a little, but was still uneasy, though Meili didn't relax and remained wary. Jian was still uneasy, but decided to act like nothing was wrong. Joan contributed to what was being said between Takara and Emily every now and then, throwing in tidbits of conversation every now and then.

Pretty soon through the train ride, Takara was friends with Emily and they were happily chatting. Laura watched the scene with a tilted head and Anzhela just watched for the train station, her eyes not leaving the window but her ears aware to what happened in the cabin of the train. Clarissa sat quietly, not really paying any attention to Emily and Takara.

Tess leaned over to Jian and Meili, whispering, "Something doesn't feel right about this girl."

The Prince agreed whispering back as he subtly glared at Emily, "I don't think I like it."

"Any ideas what it could be?" Tess wondered.

Jian thought about it for a moment before explaining the best he could, "It's like she's more than one person, with the others screaming out in agony." As crazy as it sounded, Tess had to agree.

The train that they took from where they had been hiding in Isfara went back up through the Central area then down to the South, past Rush Valley and arrived at Fortress Castell, the large city at the stop just before Dublith. Joan's phone rang just as they stepped off the train, letting her know she was getting a text. Checking her pockets for her phone, but unable to find it, confusion slowly grew on her face.

Tess handed Joan her phone, giving and embarrassed smile. It took the State Alchemist raised a brow and looked at Tess, unable to figure out why Tess had her phone. Thankfully, she didn't have to wonder very long since Tess remembered.

"I forgot to give it back." Tess chuckled, blushing. Back when she had texted her brother, Tess had borrowed the Alchemist's phone.

Joan laughed quietly and looked at the text she had just received from Selene. Selene's text read, "_I have a lead for you. There will be a secret slave auction in Frontera tomorrow."_

To try and avoid eavesdropping, Joan read the text aloud to her friends quietly. "Frontera isn't far from here, just a bus ride away. It shouldn't take long to get there." Joan informed everyone after briefly consulting with a map.

"Time to free more slaves?" Takara asked hopefully.

Emily listened in, but pretended she wasn't paying attention. Her nonchalant attitude only served to make the already wary members of the group even more suspicious.

"We should probably find a safe place to send them if we do free more slaves." Tess commented.

"That would be a good idea," Joan agreed. "But where would a safe place be?" she wondered aloud, briefly glancing at her map before saying, "We'll think of that later, right now we should get over there."

On a private communications frequency, she texted a message to the other State Alchemists to inform them of the secret slave trade and the auction she in Frontera she was going to. Sending it, she announced, "Let's hurry and get over there."

"Yeah, let's go!" Takara happily agreed, taking a few steps forward.

Before Takara could get too far on foot, Tess deadpanned, "We need a bus."

"Can I come?" Emily asked, an innocent smile playing across her lips, as if she hadn't meant to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Sure, why not?" Joan answered Emily, slightly distracted with the map in her hands and not really thinking about how little they actually knew her. "We're going to head to the bus stop and wait for the bus to take us to Frontera."

The suspicious Xingese members of the group didn't say anything, though Jian glanced at their new follower, Emily, with distain. Emily could practically feel the uneasiness coming from the Prince, and instantly knew she would have to do something about that.

After consulting the map again, Joan started walking toward where she thought the bus stop was. Unfamiliar with the layout of the city, she chose their path with a fraction of uncertainty.

"If you're heading to the bus stop, you're going the wrong way," Emily said, jabbing a thumb in the correct direction and adding, "It's over in the other direction."

Joan blushed lightly in embarrassment and flipped the map around when she realized she had been holding it upside down. "I knew that." She fibbed, and then started heading the direction Emily had pointed them. Clarissa smiled at Joan's mistake, resisting a laugh that was threatening to burst out.

"Have you been here before?" Takara asked.

"Yep, several times." Emily replied, with a hint of pride.

"That's convenient." Joan commented, turning a corner in hopes of ending up at the bus stop.

Everyone followed Joan around the corner though Jian and Emily, however, dwindled behind. Once the others were around the corner and out of sight, Jian stopped Emily and, with an air of uncommon seriousness about him, stated, "There's something wrong with you and I want to know what it is."

"Do you really want to know?" She said mysteriously, justifying the Prince's suspicions.

"That's why I said I wanted to know." Jian replied with a twinge of impatience, not at all comfortable with Emily's apparent eagerness to spill her secret.

"My real name is Envy, and I'm a homunculus." Emily smiled maliciously.

"That would explain the many souls that are within you." Jian mused, well aware of what a homunculus was. "But it doesn't explain why you were so eager to come with us."

"Oh, I have my reasons. Did you know that a couple of your little friends are escaped slaves?" Envy asked.

"I may or may not have been aware," Jian replied, not interested in whether or not they were. "Since you're bringing this up, you must be here to stop us from freeing slaves."

"That's part of it," Envy said with a wicked grin. "I'm also going to reclaim the slaves you bunch stole. I suspect the others will make good slaves as well, maybe I'll take them too."

"You must be insane if you think I'll let you get away with that." Jian told Envy threateningly.

"Ha! Who's going to stop me? You?" Envy laughed. She had no doubt she could easily defeat one weak and measly human.

"I don't see why not," Jian replied, confident in his ability to defeat one girl.

Envy reached over and tugged on Jian's long ponytailed hair, for reasons he couldn't grasp, as she informed him, "Now you know too much and you and your strange ability to know I wasn't human is too annoying to let you live. I'm going to have to kill you now, and I'm going to enjoy it."

"We'll see about that." He single-handedly defeated a group of assassins that attacked him with relative ease, some ingenuity on his part aiding him, so there was no reason he could thing of that he couldn't defeat Envy, who looked untrained and amateurish. However easy to defeat his opponent appeared, he had no intention of going easy on the beast in human skin.

"Don't underestimate me." Envy smirked, her hair darkening to the darkest shade of black possible, and her eyes turning a malicious red that matched the color of pooling blood. "Here I come!" She announced as she charged at the Emperor's son.

-  
From a rooftop a few buildings away from the little group, a Xingese girl, clad in dark clothing and armor, eyed the homunculus with increasing interest. She had been waiting for some time for this moment to prove her valor, now all she needed was a reason to do her job.

When the homunculus charged at the Prince, she thought, "_That was just what I needed."_ Pulling the red and black mask over her face, she swiftly traveled across the rooftops towards the conflict. _"I refuse to fail you this time."_

_..._

Joan was too focused on finding the bus stop, struggling with navigation, to notice the two people missing from their group. Meili had eventually noticed that Jian and Emily were missing, but didn't say anything and looked around from the rooftops for the Prince. In her search, she often remained out of sight from the rest of the group but followed their chi to avoid losing them in case the missing persons returned.

Meili spotted a girl running on the rooftops and decided to interrogate her in case she heard something. Silently, she caught up and leaped off a slightly taller building to tackle the girl and successfully pinned her to the ground. Having been an assassin not too long ago, the method of interrogation was easier for her than trying to talk to people.

With a flat tone that still brought terror to it's victims, Meili demanded, "Have you seen a 16 year old Xingese boy with his hair in a ponytail and hard to ignore?"

Recognizing the clothes Meili wore as Xingese and less than likely friendly, the pinned girl shook her head defiantly and thought, "_She's an assassin, probably chasing the Prince." _Before double checking her assumption was correct, she desperately pushed Meili off, and ran to the other side of the building, searching for Envy and Jian's chi.

...

Jian dodged Envy's predictably sloppy charge easily and advised his attacker, "Telling me that you were coming isn't a very smart thing to do."

She jumped out of reach of the fist he had aimed at her face and Jian bit back a surprised yelp of pain as he fist collided with a wall directly behind where his target had been a moment earilier. He shook his hand and continued as if the mistake hadn't hurt his hand.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Envy taunted Jian then swung her leg out to sweep his legs out from under him.

He jumped over the leg sweep, well prepared for such an attack and taunted back, "You too!" After climbing the side of the nearest building and reaching the top, he called down to her, "Let's see if you can fight as well up here as you do down there!"

Envy leaped to the top of the building in a single bound and chased after Jian. The Prince ran across the roof and jumped down into the alley. When Envy looked down, she found that Jian had been hanging from the edge. As she looked down he pulled himself back up and kicked her chest, sending her reeling backward. As she began maintaining her balance again, he grabbed the front of her shirt and tossed her toward the edge of the building, aiming to send her down to the alley below to end the fight.

Envy stumbled and fell into the alley, hitting the ground with a sickening combination of a splat and a crunch. Though he was positive the fight was over, he jumped down anyway, only to find Envy pulling herself to her feet, red sparks dancing across her body as she yelled at him, "That was rude, you little punk!"

"You're calling me rude? You're the one trying to kill the 8th son of the Emperor, heir of the Yao clan!" He proclaimed back at her with habitual formality, masking the surprise he felt when he found she was completely unharmed.

"Ooh, a prince! How fun!" Envy mocked with a grin, delighted to hear this new information. "I didn't know I was in the company of royalty! That makes this even more fun than before!" She charged him again, jumping at the last second to knock him over feet first with a tackle.

Still shocked enough to be unable to avoid the tackle, Jian fell over and let out an involuntary gasp as air was knocked out of him when she landed on him. Her heavy weight surprised him but he managed to kicked her off and rolled to his feet as he said, "Your sense of humor astounds me!" The strength of his kick was enough to send her crashing loudly into another nearby building.

He went to investigate the rubble and check out the results. When he got close, a larger than normal hand flew out and grabbed him around his midsection, pinning his left arm to his side but leaving his right arm free to pound ineffectively against the hard skin the belonged to the inhuman fist that held him hostage.

As he continued his fruitless efforts, Jian realized he never would have expected this and deeply underestimated his inhuman opponent.

...

Tess noticed Meili had spent most of her time on the roof and was surprised when she could sense her heading back the way they had come. After wondering what she was doing for a minute, Tess noticed Jian and Emily were missing.

"Hey, Joan," Tess said to get the Alchemist's attention. "Where did Jian and Emily go?"

"I—I don't know. When did they leave?" Joan asked, finally noticing the absence of the two. There was a loud crash that surprised everyone and made most of them jump. "Could that be them?" Joan wondered aloud, concern prevalent in her voice as she hoped she was wrong.

"They must be in trouble!" Takara gasped.

Running in the direction the sound had come from, Tess urged the others to follow, "Come on!"

...

"I've got you now, you pest!" Envy spat as she started squeezing the life out of Jian, climbing out of the rubble. She was growing and started turning an ugly shade green. "Soon you won't be an annoyance anymore! You're even gifted enough to be shown my true form before you die!"

"That definitely isn't normal," Jian managed to gasp before his breath escaped him. The force of her grip around him was enough to make his ribs creak painfully until a few of them snapped. As she grew, he felt her skin becoming harder and realized he had to finish this before it was too late.

Before her size could grow larger than that of the famous Alex Louis Armstrong, he landed a series of blows on the arm that crushed him, effectively paralyzing it and making her drop him as her hand when slack and unresponsive. He ignored the pain from his broken ribs and landed multiple more blows all over Envy's body and she collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

"That should keep you there for a while." He brushed his hands together in a job well done.

"What did you do to me?!" Envy shouted in frustration. "I can't move!"

"I call it chi-blocking. It impedes the flow of chi and paralyzes the victim. It's something I came up with and has coming in handy as I fought assassins and now you as well." The smug grin he had been wearing as he explained vanished when the pain from his ribs became more evident without adrenaline to distract him.

Walking slowly upon discovering that moving too quickly made his chest hurt more than a slow progression, the Prince headed in the direction he thought they went when he and Envy were left behind, leaving the paralyzed homunculus behind. She wasn't going anywhere for awhile, but the chi-blocking would wear off after a while. The pain from his ribs was slowly becoming more intense. Though he was likely making his injuries worse, he had to find the others and warn them not to trust Emily.

He progressed a couple blocks away before the pain suddenly spiked. Where it was painful before, it was now excruciating. He fell to his knees and breathing became difficult and painful, beginning to cough. He didn't pay too much attention but he was sure he coughed up a worrisome amount of blood. One of his ribs must have punctured a lung. He saw two pairs of feet running toward him and heard muffled talking before blacking out.

...

Nearby, as Jian and Envy battled, two people were walking to the bus stop when a loud crash was heard by the younger one.

"Hey, Keith, did you hear that loud crash?" The 13-year old asked his 19-year old brother in sign language.

Like it was obvious, Keith answered in the same language, "No, Evan, I did not hear it,"

"Oh, right," Evan chuckled. His older brother may retain a fair amount of hearing, but was considered to be legally deaf from birth. "We should probably check it out."

"Sure. I guess Frontera will have to wait a little while." Keith replied. "The Slave Auction that Gemstone messaged us about isn't until tomorrow anyway." And the two began heading toward the place the loud noise was heard.

Heading toward the source of the crash Evan heard, they both saw someone collapse and began running toward the person.

"Hey! Are you alright?" Keith shouted, but got no response. They reached the collapsed boy, a Xingese teen, and found him unconscious.

"I think he's injured," Evan said, noting the puddle of blood the teen laid on top of. "And it looks bad. We should get him to a hospital ASAP."

Keith used the alchemy circle stitched onto his fingerless gloves to transmute a stretcher and the two carefully placed the boy onto it, noting any of the grimaces they unintentionally caused. "We're lucky the hospital isn't too far from here," Keith said. They carefully and quickly carried him to the hospital.

"I hope he'll be alright." Evan said, after taking the Xingese teen to the hospital. The injured teen was being treated, for what the doctors called Flail Chest, as the two brothers spoke.

"Me too." Keith agreed. "I'm thinking he was part of some sort of fight that caused the crash you heard. So I'll question him about it once he wakes up."

"What about Frontera? As a state alchemist it's your job to handle something like a secret slave auction." Evan signed. Using sign language helped Keith understand better without mishearing anything and kept most others from eavesdropping. Very few people knew state alchemists still existed, and it was supposed to stay that way.

"I know, that's why I'll go to that while you stay here until I come back." Keith signed back. "So wait here until I come back."

Evan nodded, knowing full well that it was pointless to argue with his brother once he made up his mind. Even so, he wasn't looking forward to spending the next few days in the hospital.

Not long after, Keith left Evan at the hospital to wait for the boy to wake up while he went to Frontera. He got to the bus just in time and sat in one of the seats.

...

Envy heard footsteps racing toward her. "_I'd better change back into my disguise quickly; otherwise the others will be suspicious." _She thought, not wanting to ruin the purpose of her presence among the group. It took her a minute of concentration and a lot of effort, but she managed to change back before the group found her.

Joan and the others got to the scene and saw Emily lying in the rubble of a destroyed building. "Emily!" Joan called. She raced to her side and asked, "What happened?"

"I was talking to Jian, then out of nowhere we got attacked by assassins!" Emily tried to sit up, failing miserably. She continued with her story, "We were both fighting and I lost track of Jian. They took him and I think he may have gotten killed!"

"Oh no! That's terrible!" Takara exclaimed, helping Emily sit up.

"And what happened to you? Did they use some sort of poison to paralyze you?" Joan asked, having noticed that Emily had a hard time moving at all.

"I'm not sure what it was. It's started wearing off a little bit, I can move more now than I could earlier." Emily said, wiggling her fingers to show them.

Tess wasn't completely buying Emily's story, but decided not to say anything without having convincing evidence. Emily's chi still gave her a weird feeling and it made her uneasy.

"At least we know the paralysis isn't permanent." Joan said, slightly relieved. They hadn't known this girl for very long, but it wouldn't be good if anyone had gotten terribly hurt.

...

Meili jumped in front of the girl who had just taken off, flashing the hidden blade strapped to her left wrist and pointing it at the girl. "I'll take that as a yes. Where is he?" She demanded. If the girl was a Yu clan assassin, the ex-assassin would know. She could be an assassin from another clan, and Meili didn't want to take that kind of risk, not after everything she had given up to aide the Prince.

"Why would I tell you?" The armored girl snapped, unwilling to admit she had lost him as well.

"If you won't tell me, I can force admittance out of you." Meili threatened.

The girl simply glared at her defiantly in response. She didn't want to risk the assassin ruining all she had worked for.

"Is that a no? I guess I'll have to find the Prince on my own then." Meili shot her arm forward, bringing her hidden blade up to the girl's stomach quickly.

The girl stepped to the side to avoid the attack and hooked her foot behind Meili's in an attempt to trip her so she couldn't follow Jian. Meili escaped before the attempted trip was successful and was somehow able to tell that the potentially threatening girl didn't want Meili to go in a certain direction.

"If you'll excuse me, I have more important things to do," Meili stated before running in the direction that Jian had last been seen going.

Groaning inwardly, the girl with the still unknown name gave chase. She really didn't want to fight this woman. She could tell she was more skilled than she was, but would if she had to. "_The Prince's safety is all that matters."_ She thought.

When the girl caught up, Meili realized that her current running speed wouldn't be enough. She couldn't have this possible assassin trying to kill the Prince.

"Why don't you just leave, and I'll do my job and this won't have to get messy." She still had a habit of attacking, sometimes killing, people that she was trying to break. Which could only be expected of an ex-assassin.

"I'm not going to do that." She said, an eyebrow was raised behind her mask. Curiously, she thought, "_Who does she think I am? Why would I just abandon Prince Jian?"_

Obvious that her pursuer wouldn't give up, Meili jumped, twisting in the air as she did so, and kicked the girl backward. "You will not ruin everything I have given up for the Prince!" She stated, as if it were fact, and then took off running again. Despite how little emotion was put into her words, the meaning of them carried a lot of weight.

The girl quickly regained her balance, and yelled as she ran to catch up with Meili, "Me? Why would I kill the Prince? You're the one trying to kill him!" Like a brick, realization hit her that she didn't even know where the Prince was. "_No wonder they fired me. I'm a wonderful bodyguard," _She thought bitterly.

Meili stopped dead in her tracks and whipped around to face the other girl, "What leads you to believe I am attempting an assassination? I'm trying to find him simply because he seems to have wandered off." She intentionally avoided that she had tried to kill him before to avoid further conflict.

The girl skidded to a halt as well, narrowly avoiding crashing into Meili, and said, "If you're not trying to kill him, what are you doing?" She carefully watched the assassin to make sure no sudden moves were made, by no means was her suspicion gone.

"Trying to find him." She repeated, the twinge of annoyance she felt completely hidden. "I've been acting as his bodyguard recently." She used the term bodyguard loosely because he was fully capable of beating her in a fight with a few well-placed jabs.

"_I_ happen to be his bodyguard, Shaneka of the Yao clan." The girl formally introduced, purposefully leaving out the 'ex' as she removed her mask.

"In that case, I suppose killing you isn't necessary." Meili casually noted, looking Shaneka up and down, realizing why the bodyguard had seemed familiar. The ex-assassin was aware that she needed to avoid Shaneka remembering their previous encounter on the grounds of the Yao palace. "Now I must find the Prince, who seems to like getting himself into interesting predicament." She didn't find it necessary to run anymore, so she began walking.

"I know." The bodyguard agreed, knowing Jian better than most people. Matching strides with Meili, Shaneka kept an eye on the woman because she was slow to trust. Curious to know the extent of Meili's knowledge on the situation, she asked, "Do you know who that was who attacked him?"

Meili was quiet for a moment before answering, "No, I don't. I wasn't aware he was attacked." Her first thought was the assassins she had been previously collaborating with. But since they believe Meili was still on their side and currently hunting down the Prince, it wasn't likely to be them. So it was more likely someone who had disappeared around the same time Jian did. "But I have an idea on who it might have been."

"Who?" Shaneka asked, pressing for more information.

"A girl we recently met who calls herself Emily, but doesn't seem entirely human." Meili replied, ignoring the fact she was being obviously interrogated.

"You're right about her not being human. She's a homunculus." Shaneka informed. "At least, I'm pretty sure she is. She has all the signs of one, and she changed form a couple of times when she was fighting Prince Jian."

"I'm not sure I've heard of a homunculus being successfully created."

Shaneka admitted, "I'm glad the Prince knows how to take care of himself. Homunculi shouldn't be dealt with lightly."

Meili showed no sign that she had heard what Shaneka had said, but waited a moment before saying, "We must find the Prince quickly."

...

"Do you think you can stand?" Takara asked after several minutes passed and Emily regained more movement.

"Maybe." Emily climbed shakily to her feet and Joan helped her stand since it wasn't likely that she could do so on her own yet.

"Thanks. Weren't we on the way to the bus stop?" Emily asked, a little too urgently.

"Yeah, until we noticed you and Jian were missing." Tess replied. "What time does the bus come, anyway?"

Joan looked at her pocket watch to check the time and answered, "I think it was in about 10 minutes."

"Then we should probably hurry so we don't miss it." Tess suggested.

"I'll help Emily." Takara volunteered, putting her arm under Emily's.

"I don't think Meili will be very happy with the news about Jian," Joan said and they walked toward the bus stop once again.

"I bet she's looking for him," Tess said. "At least she knows where we're going."

"Yeah, that's true. It's not like they were our responsibility anyway."

Joan and the others got onto the bus after waiting for about 10 minutes and helped Emily get on. She was able to move better now, but was still having difficulty getting her body to respond.

"How long will the bus ride be?" Tess asked.

"It's about twenty miles from here to Frontera." Emily replied.

"Sounds like it will be half an hour to an hour, then." Tess clarified.

"Sounds about right." Joan agreed. "Hopefully we'll run into another alchemist or Selene."

Emily's ears perked up. "_Another alchemist?"_ She thought. "_And Selene? Could it be that Selene was the one who orchestrated that escape?"_

Tess leaned over and whispered in Joan's ear. "Aren't you supposed to keep the state alchemist thing secret?"

"Why do I keep saying things I shouldn't?" Joan moaned quietly and assured herself that nobody would assume she meant State Alchemists. Joan pulled out her phone and texted Selene, _"Where is the auction?"_

Selene replied with a text that contained directions to the auction. Then she asked if Joan had told the other state alchemists about the auction.

Joan replied back by saying, _"Yeah, I sent a message out. One replied back saying he would be coming and would meet me at the bus stop once we got off. I think his name was Keith."_

_"Good. The more help you have, the easier it will be to free more slaves and take down the slave trade."_ Selene texted.

_"That's what I'm hoping for."_

During the ride that seemed to be taking and eternity, Takara dozed off.

"Looks like she was tired." Tess smiled.

Clarissa sat near Joan; she slipped a paper to her, wanting to ask her a few things, but she didn't feel comfortable asking one of the questions out loud, so she decided to do what Selene did and write it down. The note said, _"We never got to finish our conversation. I've been wondering: will they let people join the state alchemists? Because I would like to."_

Joan read the note then wrote on the back of the paper. _"I'm not sure. I used my state alchemist watch to get in and question the President about it. He was impressed by what I could do, and I already had a watch. We could see if we can get you joined if we ever go back to Central."_ She handed the note back to Clarissa.

Clarissa wrote back, _"That's good enough for me. Thanks. Could I have your cell number so I don't have to write notes by hand all the time?"_

Joan wrote her number down for Clarissa, who stuck the page into her pocket. After that, the bus ride was relatively uneventful.

**A/N: This one was a pain to edit, and I'm still wondering if I should have moved some more of it around so it doesn't switch between character groups too often and be confusing. I'll admit, this was so much easier to role play.**

**This part felt like it happened really quickly and we made it painfully obvious that Emily would betray them, but it had to be done somehow.**


	6. An Auction and Some Tunnels

When the bus arrived at their destination, Frontera, Tess shook Takara awake. "We're here." She alerted the Ishvalan.

"Huh? Oh, ok." Takara said, bleary eyed and still sleepy.

Joan stood up, stretched her back and she stated, "That felt longer than it actually was."

They all filed off the stop and waited there for the other alchemist, Keith, to show up. Unaware that the State Alchemist they were waiting for stepped off the same bus immediately after them. He stood and waited for a couple of minutes before realizing that they were the group he was looking for.

"Hey, I'm Keith." He introduced. His voice sounded a little odd and he spoke louder than necessary, as if he was having a hard time hearing himself speak. "We were on the same bus..." he trailed off, sure that they knew what he meant.

"We were really on the same bus?" Joan repeated in disbelief, feeling a little guilty about failing to notice. She had to assure herself that it was an easy mistake to make.

As everyone got acquainted with Keith, Anzhela bit her lip in worry over Jian's safety. "_What happened to him and where is he?"_ She wondered silently to herself, as she had been doing ever since noticing his disappearance. The Prince was the first person to be nice to her ever since she escaped Drachma, so it was only natural that she formed an attachment to him.

Laura glanced at Joan and Keith and was clearly impatient, compared to Clarissa who patiently waited for them to get moving. Her legs had fallen asleep on the ride, and she really wanted to walk so they would wake up.

"Maybe we should find a place to stay the night," Tess suggested. "The auction isn't until tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's true," Joan agreed. "Let's go find a good place to stay." She picked a direction and began walking, having no idea where anything was in the small town. "Maybe there's a hotel this way."

After a few minutes of searching, they found what seemed to be a decent hotel and checked in, getting a few rooms. To justify their action, Joan promised herself that once they finished their work here, they would go back to Fortress Castell to look for Jian. She had a hard time believing that he was killed and was sure the others felt the same.

"It's been a long day." Tess said. "We should get some rest." She wasn't sure how much sleep they would get with them all being worried about Jian, and she still didn't completely trust Emily yet, but they had to try.

Joan nodded and jumped into bed, not bothering to changing into pajamas. There was too much to worry about at the moment—the slave auction that they had to go to and finding the missing Jian— to concern themselves over their nighttime attire.

The group went to bed at varying speeds and stages. Takara and Laura fell asleep quickly, but Tess was having a hard time falling asleep. She glanced at Emily and saw that she looked sound asleep, but was still uncomfortable. After tossing and turning for a while she finally fell asleep. Anzhela found it nearly impossible for sleep to claim her, her thoughts whirling at top speed and all of them fed her concern.

...

Back in Fortress Castell, Meili and Shaneka searched, with no luck, for their royal charge. After searching long and hard, and after a bit of conversation, done more by the bodyguard than the reserved ex-assassin, it had been discovered that Shaneka likes to go by Shay.

"Does he always get himself into trouble like this?" Meili asked Shay.

"Yes." Shay confirmed.

"So I'm not the only one having trouble with this." Meili noted. "Keeping him safe is probably going to be the death of me." She was mostly referring to when the other assassins found out she betrayed them. They weren't going to be happy, but she didn't intend to tell Shay that.

"I know what you mean." Shay knew very well that being a bodyguard for royalty, especially royalty like Jian, could make life difficult.

Meili sighed, "This is becoming more difficult than I anticipated. It seemed easier when he would cooperate with me."

After searching for hours, Meili and Shay spent the night on the roofs of the buildings in Fortress Castell. The ex-assassin kept an eye out during most of it while Shay slept the hours away. Meili had been tempted to take off and continue the search for Jian, but decided against it upon realizing that such actions would resulting in losing the bodyguard's trust.

...

Back at the hospital, Evan spent his night sleeping in the waiting room-after convincing the doctors and hospital staff to let him- as he waited for the Xingese boy, whose name they didn't know, to regain consciousness. Sleep came easily to him as he snoozed on the extremely comfortable couch that was placed in the waiting room.

...

When morning arrived, Tess woke up early and slightly sleep deprived. By the time Joan woke up, Tess had been awake long enough to make breakfast for everyone. The irresistible smell of the food raised Takara and Emily from their slumber, and made Joan realize how hungry she was. She sat down at the table and waited for everyone else.

Once the breakfast was finished, simply pancakes with orange juice. There weren't very many options for the meal, but there was plenty. As they ate, Takara asked Joan when the auction was.

Joan had texted Selene for the place and time of the auction before coming to breakfast and answered, "At noon, in some warehouse that I have directions for."

Instinctively, everyone eyed the clock that hung on the wall to check the time. It was discovered that the auction would begin in three hours.

"A warehouse?" Emily voiced. "I might know where it is."

"That's good." Joan praised, not realizing how suspicious it was that Envy seemed to know which warehouse among the multiple warehouses in the city she was talking about. Then she joked, "Because we'd probably get lost if we had to rely on my brilliant navigation skills."

Anzhela didn't eat much, still extremely worried for Jian and where he could be. Sleep, when it had claimed her over the night, had been loose and didn't serve her very well. Laura toyed with her food, lost in thought as she wondered how they were going to free the slaves at this auction.

"What's wrong guys?" Joan asked them upon noticing they weren't eating.

Laura looked up from her thinking, crashing back to reality, and said, "Sorry, what?"

Anzhela looked away, not wanting to meet the State Alchemist's gaze and risk anyone discovering her feelings. "I'm not hungry." She stated.

"You should eat," Takara advised. "You'll need to keep your energy up for later."

Joan nodded as she reminded them, "We'll be very busy today."

Anzhela sighed and halfheartedly stuffed a mouthful of pancake in her mouth and Laura remembered that there was breakfast in front of her.

Once breakfast was done, and noon neared, they met up with Keith and started heading toward the auction. Anzhela kept worrying and sighed as she looked around at the great country of Amestris. The amazing lack of snow still surprised her, even though she had already known that Amestris had considerably less snow than Drachma did. The warm weather felt nice on her skin, but she felt a touch of nostalgia when she realized that Eric would never have the chance to enjoy it with her.

"What's the plan?" Takara suddenly asked.

Joan began to explain the plan she had been cooking up since she woke up that morning, "We'll cause a blackout. Alchemists seal the windows near the bottom and alkahestrists can get the higher ones. Then in the panic and confusion we'll make an exit and the non-alchemists can lead the slaves out secretly."

"Looks like I'm closing the higher windows all by myself then." Tess chuckled.

"Right. So how about Keith, Laura, and Clarissa close the windows with Tess while Emily, Takara, and I get the slaves out of there. We have enough people on the windows." Joan said.

"We'll probably need to shut off the lights, too." Tess said.

"That would be helpful." Joan replied. She had assumed that particular detail had been implied.

"I'll sneak in from the roof and Takara can sneak in the back since we could be recognized by someone and that could blow our plans." Tess said.

"And the rest of us walk in like we're slave traders or whatever. There are probably too many of them for all of them to know each other. Maybe throw a few bids in every now and again; it worked for me last time." Joan advised.

"Sounds like a plan." Emily agreed.

They soon approached the warehouse and entered the way they each said they would. Tess climbed to the roof and entered through a window and climbing onto a balcony above the auction area, using the noise of the crowd to disguise the sound of her kunai hitting the walls above the higher windows.

Takara sneaked around back to find where she could shut off the lights. Emily entered in the front with the others. Joan casually walked in the door and joined the audience with everyone else while Tess went in through the roof.

Selene stood on the stage, scanning the room. A movement caught her eye and she glanced up to see Tess throwing her daggers around the room. Looking around, she caught a glimpse of Joan and a couple of the others. Emily looked strangely familiar to her, but she couldn't place it.

Emily saw Selene on the stage and narrowed her eyes slightly with contempt.

It wasn't too much longer now. Joan and Emily stayed sitting among the crowd and the others began shutting the windows. Once that was finished, all that was left was the lights. Takara found the fuse box and, hoping everyone was ready, shut off the lights.

Everyone gasped and the group shot to work. Joan and Emily ran to where the slaves were being held. Joan broke their chains with alchemy and whispered for them to follow her; the slaves followed with little hesitation. Emily and Joan helped lead them out in the cover of the darkness.

Tess ran into a small room, separate from the large room the auction was being held in, and climbed out a window that hadn't already been closed and began searching for the others. Once she spotted them, she hurried to catch up.

They led the slaves out relatively easily. Selene tagged along to help them get the slaves out safely, since she knew the way out and nobody would notice her missing in the dark. When they got outside Takara was excited to see Selene with them.

"Okay, we got them out of the building, now how are we going to get them out of the town without running into any problems?" Joan asked upon approaching Selene.

Selene pulled out her notebook and wrote a single word, _"Tunnels."_

"Tunnels?" Clarissa asked, confused. Where would they get tunnels at such a time?

Selene nodded, and then gestured for them to follow her. Clarissa shrugged and they all followed Selene.

...

Immediately after waking up that morning, Meili and Shay continued looking through the city of Fortress Castell.

"Where could he be? If he was attacked by a homunculus and not assassins, he should still be in the city." Meili said. She normally wouldn't talk as much as she had been the past few days, but she was making an effort to break many of her old habits.

"Knowing Jian, he could be anywhere." Shay said with the small trace of a nervous smile.

Meili sighed in exasperation. She didn't know the prince as well as Shay did so she was most likely right. But she would've hoped he would be smart enough not to hide too well. The more she thought about it, the less convinced she was that he was hiding at all.

Shay smiled more at Meili's sigh, grateful for the bit of expression the stoic assassin showed. Glancing around at all the buildings, she recognized one as a hospital a few blocks away. Shay focused on finding Jian's chi, expecting to find nothing, surprised to detect the faint trace of his comfortingly familiar presence.

"He's nearby." She informed Meili, relief flooding her system. "I'm not sure where yet; it's too faint, but he's close."

Meili concentrated and could sense a slightly familiar chi, but it was much too faint for her to be able to tell who it was. Trusting the bodyguard, she instructed, " Shaneka, let's scout the area and see if we get any closer." Shay nodded.

Shay took a few steps toward the hospital, eventually becoming stronger and more discernible. Her heart leaped excitedly at the prospect of drawing nearer to the Prince.

"He's over this way." She said, pointing towards the hospital, unable to hide her excitement. After three long weeks since the Yu clan assassin stormed the palace, she would be back by the Prince's side.

They hurried in that direction, still not certain that it was the hospital he was at. Meili replied, "I hope you're right."

"I'm positive. I would recognize his chi anywhere." Shay confidently stated.

Meili didn't doubt Shay, but only sought to consider all the possibilities. As they got closer, Meili noticed Shay became more confident about the direction they were heading. Meili was starting to recognize the Prince's chi, but it still seemed faint to her.

...

Evan was still waiting at the hospital, bored out of his mind in the boring hospital. Maybe if that Xingese person would ever wake up, he'd have something to do. But the doctors said it could be days, maybe weeks until he woke up. His only comfort came from the knowledge that Keith should be coming back later that day, so Evan didn't have to stay bored forever.

...

Jian woke up, a little dazed. "_Where am I?" _He thought, trying to get his bearings. He looked around for a second and taking in the white walls and sterile smell infesting the room. "_A hospital? The last thing I remember is.…"_ Images of the conflict he had with Envy flashed through his mind, irritating a headache he realized was developing.

He sat up quickly, only to fall back down from the pain of his broken ribs as he resisted a yelp of pain. If he was stuck here, he could only hope he wasn't too late to warn the others of Envy's identity.

Jian spotted his clothes, which were washed and folded, on a chair. He looked to see what he was wearing and found a hospital gown and decided it was best not to think about how he got into them. He slowly pulled himself out of the bed with the help of nearby objects to balance himself, and put his clothes on. As he did so, he noted that one layer of clothing, the white shirt he had, was gone; it could possibly have been stained beyond what the doctors considered presentable. He shrugged and pulled the red one with gold trim on, which revealed his chest.

He thought about just jumping out the window so nobody could prevent him from leaving, he could easily jump from his position on the second floor without a problem under normal circumstances. But his injuries would prevent the feat from being feasible. Noting that there was a single person on the other side of the door that led to the hall, he assumed that he could handle the possible opposition if the situation called for it.

When Jian stepped out the door, he was met with a 13-year old boy was sitting in a chair upside down like bored kids do. The Prince paused to process the scene.

"You're awake!" Evan said, as if it were surprising. He nearly fell on his head as he turned right side up and slowly added, "But you should still be in bed."

"Who are you?" Jian asked, ignoring the bed comment.

"I'm Evan. Me and my brother, Keith, brought you here after you collapsed yesterday."

Jian wasn't sure if he should thank them or not, instead he picked a direction to walk, and headed through the halls to find the exit. "How do I get out of here?"

Evan argued, "But you're still injured. You shouldn't be leaving. And we still need to question you about the fight the other day. We suspect that you were part of it and want to know more about it."

"I know that I'm injured, but I have to find someone. It's urgent." he needed to find multiple people actually. But he wasn't about to go into detail.

"Well, if you could just tell us what happened yesterday as you sit in bed and rest…" He paused, not sure how to address the Xingese teen. " I don't know your name."

"Jian Yao. As for what happened, it's too complicated." He really just wanted to get out of this hospital. He felt trapped in it, and never liked being forced to stay someplace he didn't want to be. It explained why he constantly sneaked out of the palace grounds and to the nearby city disguised as a citizen.

Evan gripped the Prince's wrist to hold Jian back, but to no avail. The only reason Jian hadn't chi-blocked Evan yet was because he didn't see the point and wasn't keen on risking further injury if he didn't need to. He couldn't find his way out anyway and doubted he'd be able to find his way back to the hospital room he had woken up in on his own.

Eventually an elevator was found and he cried out happily, "Freedom!" with Evan still clinging to his arm to prevent him from leaving.

"You can't go!" Evan protested. Jian ignored him and didn't even try to detach him. He just headed out the door of the hospital, grateful to have gotten out and breath the fresh air uncontaminated by the stench of constant sanitation. "_Now to find the others."_ He thought. Just then, he sensed familiar chi nearby. "_That was easy."_

Shay walked onto the hospital's grounds and could tell she was getting closer. The closer she got, the more she feared that he'd be upset with her for failing to protect him when the assassins came and kidnapped him. Her increasing nervousness wasn't invisible to Meili's keen and observant eyes.

Jian looked around and spotted the bodyguard and ex-assassin in the distance. He was surprised to find Shay there, but he was happy to see her nonetheless.

"Shay!" he shouted happily, "It's so good to see someone I know!" He ran toward them, arms outstretched. But before he reached them, he collapsed to the ground and moaned in pain after covering half the distance that had separated them.

"I told you!" Evan exclaimed, slightly panicked and ready to run inside to grab a doctor. "You're still injured!"

Shay ran to his side and shoved Evan away and urgently demanded, panic rising in her voice, "Prince, what happened?!"

Meili showed no such concern, flatly asking, "Are you alright Prince?" The lack of emotion in her voice stunned the frantic bodyguard and flustered Evan.

He started making weird motions with his hands from his position on the ground and, in too much pain for proper grammar, explained, "Emily, Homunculus, Envy, hand, squish." The last three didn't make sense to Meili, so she hoped Shay understood.

"Prince?" Evan asked because he was unaware of the fact until the two girls mentioned it. "My brother and I found him injured and unconscious and brought him here. I kept telling him he's still too injured to leave, but he wouldn't listen."

Shay understood. "His ribs are broken." She told Meili. She turned to Evan and respectfully addressed him, "Yes, he is a prince of Xing. Thank you for the assistance you provided."

"Yeah, he has broken ribs and a punctured lung." Evan was wondering how Shay got the broken ribs out of the babble of words that had come out of Jian's mouth. Remembering to interrogate, he began, "We wanted to ask him about the fight that happened yesterday—the one with the big crash. After we took him to the hospital we went to check out the damage, but we just found a big mess. Do you guys know what happened?" Keith would be frustrated if Evan let them get away without trying to get some information out of them.

Shay frowned, not sure what to say. "It was just a fight. Don't worry about it." She didn't know who this kid was, and she didn't know what she should tell him.

Jian slowly climbed to his feet, using Meili to aide his efforts, and was careful not to hurt himself again too much. "We need to find the others. I was hoping Tess could use a bit of alkahestry to help me." He admitted.

Shay regretfully informed him, "I have no clue where they're at."

"I know where they went," Jian said, as if to assure her it was fine that she didn't know.

"But we don't know if they are still there." Meili pointed out.

"That may be true, but there's only one bus from here to there. So they'll have to take that one back." He smiled. "Let's go!" He was about to run off like he normally would but remembered that it would be a bad idea. He didn't want a repeat of what happened when he ran towards Shay.

Shay smiled. "_This is going to take a while."_ She thought and started walking, following the Prince. He really wanted to hurry, impatient for some medical alkahestry from Tess, but knew he couldn't.

As he inched forward at the slowest possible speed he could force himself to go, he had time to wonder, "Shay, what are you doing in Amestris?"

She stiffened slightly, having hoped he wouldn't ask that question. She answered casually, "Following you, of course."

"That makes sense, but where were you when the assassins came?" It had been her shift, and even though the memory of the night was hazy, he remembered fearing she had been killed. It had been the only explanation towards her absence that he could think of.

"I—I shamefully cannot explain my actions." She stared at her feet as she said it, ashamed of her failure to properly do her duty.

He could tell something was bothering her, but didn't press her for it. Instead, he scolded, "Do you realize how much you scared me? I was worried something happened to you." He hadn't been worried about his well-being. If they hadn't killed him that night, when he had been drugged and defenseless, they weren't going to until they got what they wanted from him.

Shaneka sighed, avoiding meeting his gaze, "I'm sorry, you have every right to be cross with me, but I swear on my life that it will not happen again."

Jian was mildly taken aback and responded, tone softer than before, "I thought you knew me better than anyone. I couldn't be mad at you." He joked, waving his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter if you messed up or not, and I honestly dont care. We just have to worry about what's happening now. And right now, we have a bus to catch."

...

"Let me get this straight, there are some tunnels nearby?" Joan asked, once again, as they walked. She was met with no response because the question had been answered multiple times already.

Keith noticed that Selene wasn't talking at all and decided to try some sign language. He could tell she wasn't deaf, so he asked, "Are you mute?"

Selene looked at him with surprise then shook her head. "I took a vow of silence." She signed to him. She decided it would be best to explain everything Keith and have him translate what she was signing. "The tunnels aren't too far from here and they lead to Westwood."

Something about the vow of silence Selene explained was familiar to him, but dismissed the thought as his imagination.

He watched as Selene began signing, the style stunningly similar to his own, and asked in sign language before explaining to the others, "Where are we going after that?"

"They can follow the river Aryss upstream until it meets the Rheos river, then follow the Rheos downstream until they get to Ishval." Selene signed. "The Ishvalans can offer them refuge until they figure out where they want to go from there."

Once he made sure he understood the plan, he explained what they were going to do so they could understand.

Selene led them toward the bus stop, because that's where the entrance to the tunnels were. Just before they turned onto the street the bus stop was on, she led them into an alley and to an entrance hidden behind some crates. They peered in and saw the tunnel, earthen walls leading into the darkness below.

...

With the Prince gaining some assistance from his two bodyguards, they got onto the roof of the bus and rode it until it arrived in Frontera, arriving right after the others began descending into the tunnel.

Meili and Shay leaped off the bus and Jian was about to do the same but stopped himself when he remembered his annoying broken ribs. So he attempted to carefully climb off instead, but still ended up hurting himself and grimacing as Shay fretted over him. Motioning for her to calm down, he wondered if there was any way to avoid hurting himself. Once on the ground, arm over Shay's shoulder for support, he was able to sense the other's chi below them.

"What?" He said looking down at the ground. "Meili, can you sense them, or am I going insane?"

She nodded and confirmed, " I can."

"I can too." Shay agreed. "I wonder what they're doing down there."

"How did they get down there?" Looking back and forth, Jian added, "There has to be an entrance to a tunnel somewhere." Unable to see anything immediately, he realized they were getting too far away and didn't have enough time to properly search for an entrance. They'd have to follow them above ground before they got too far away to sense. "Come on, we can't let them get away!"

Evan hopped off the bus, having ridden inside it like a normal person. "Hey!" He called after them. He didn't want them to get away. They knew about the fight that happened that Keith still wanted to question them about, so he felt that he had to stay with them. Confused and having no idea what was going on, he followed the foreigners anyway.

Jian snatched something for them to eat before they left the town as they followed the others. He hadn't eaten for a while, almost a day, and was beginning to realize how hungry he was. He held out some for the others as well, which Meili and Shay took without hesitation while Evan seemed a little more hesitant, but after hearing his stomach rumble, he took it anyway.

...

Below ground, Tess sensed the others' chi. "_That's weird,"_ She thought, looking up at the top of the tunnel. "_Maybe I'm imagining it."_

With the flick of a switch, lights that were spaced throughout the tunnel flickered to life to illuminate their way. Selene led them through the tunnels silently. Laura kept her thoughts to herself as they walked, unable to suppress a feeling that something wasn't quite right.


	7. True Colors

"How far is Westwood anyway?" Joan asked, wanting to know how far they would have to walk before reaching their destination.

"It's around six miles," Selene signed with a small smile, which Keith translated.

"Six miles?" Joan sighed, "That's not too bad." And they continued walking on, not noticing Tess constantly looking up.

Tess kept glancing at the top of the tunnel behind them, as if willing herself to see to the surface and wondered silently, "_If I'm not imagining Jian and Meili's chi, then who are the other two with them?_"

As they got closer to the end of the tunnel, Takara finally noticed that Tess kept looking up and inquired, "Tess, why are you looking up?"

"I think they're following us." Tess said thoughtfully, vaguely answering the question.

"Who?" Emily asked with her voice lined with a certain level of confusion.

"The others." she replied without taking her eyes off of the ceiling of the tunnel and still failing to answer the question clearly.

"The others as in…?" Joan urged her to specify, having no idea what the Xingese girl meant.

"Jian and Meili. They have two others with them too." Tess finally specified.

Emily started getting nervous. "_I might have to make my move before that annoying prince can warn them."_ She thought. "_Darn. __I was hoping to wait a bit longer."_

"Maybe if we hurry we can meet up with them!" Joan hoped, excited that they were okay.

"Yeah! Let's hurry!" Takara exclaimed, starting to run ahead.

"_I'd better make my move before I lose my chance."_ Emily thought. She caught up to Takara, grabbing her arm and yanking her back, making them both stop in their tracks.

"Emily, what are you doing?" Takara asked, surprised.

"Everyone stop!" Emily shouted. "Or this girl gets it!"

Everyone stopped and looked at Emily in confusion and surprise. The joy that developed in Anzhela's chest from the news that Jian was alive quickly faded to shock. Laura glared at Emily and Clarissa frowned as they slowly comprehended what was going on.

"What are you doing?" Joan asked, worried that they had misjudged Emily. "What do you want?"

"I want you all to be slaves!" Emily said, grinning and chuckling maliciously, and then turned to Selene. "And your reputation will be ruined now that I know you're in on it!"

Replying with a glare, Selene signed to Keith once Emily turned away, "I need a distraction so I can get these freed slaves out of here."

"What kind of distraction?" Keith signed back.

"Fight her, use alchemy, whatever," Selene signed, "as long as it keeps her busy." She slowly began collecting the slaves to lead them out before the overly confident Emily noticed.

"I knew something was wrong with you." Tess muttered, with Emily overhearing.

"Oh, and how did you know?" Emily taunted.

"Your chi is strange, like there's multiple people in you." Tess replied. "I should have trusted my instincts and done something about it sooner."

"Too late now!" Emily laughed maliciously.

"Emily, what are you?" Joan asked getting the idea that Emily wasn't human.

...

After about six miles of walking, Jian refused to admit that his ribs were beginning to ache and his breathing seemed to be more restricted than before and began to complain, "When will this stupid tunnel of theirs end?"

Shay was just following Jian, and she really hadn't been paying attention to the chi they were following, but then she noticed Emily's, or Envy's. "Prince, the homunculus is with them," she warned.

"I know. That's why we need to warn them. She's a pretty good fighter, and with them being stuck underground, Envy is going to have the advantage if they fight," he said.  
Shay nodded in agreement and thought, "_Now how do we get down there? If only one of us knew alkahestry, or even alchemy,"_

Suddenly, except for Evan, they could sense the group below them stop.

"I hope they're just taking a break." Though with their luck, Jian doubted his words were reality.

...

An evil grin spread across the double-crosser's face and she happily informed them, "Well, if you must know, I'm a homunculus and my real name is Envy."

Laura gasped, "I thought all you guys died a long time ago."

"Don't compare me to them. We have a different father with entirely different plans." Envy scowled, annoyed at being mistaken as the homunculi that existed before them.

Clarissa watched, growing more nervous by the second.

Keith suddenly shouted at Envy, "Hey! Look! A distraction!" He pointed behind her. She looked behind her and Keith ran and administered a solid kick to her face, making her let go of Takara. "I can't believe that worked." He signed to himself in ecstatic surprise.

Takara ran toward the others and hid behind Tess. Now that Envy was distracted, Selene started edging the slaves toward the exit.

Envy recovered from the kick she got from Keith. "Hey, I remember where I recognize some of you from. It was a couple years back." She paused and thoughtfully continued, "I killed some little girl's mother, that little girl was screaming so loudly but I was in too much of a hurry to kill her. And there were three others I had fun killing disguised as their father, there was a little girl who managed to get away and hide from me."

Laura gasped, tears threatening to streak down her face. In disbelief and shock, she exclaimed, "You...you killed my mother!?"

"I thought it was my dad who did that!" Joan exclaimed, and then concluded with a darker tone of voice, "So everything is your fault." Without thinking, she charged at Envy, fury and hatred blooming within her.

"No, Joan! Wait!" Clarissa yelled, knowing it probably wasn't going to turn out alright.

"Dumb move," Envy smirked.

Just before Joan reached her, Envy stepped forward and to the side, raising her arm out to Joan's eye level as if to clothesline her. The movement made Joan flinch back, her feet continuing forward and flying out from under her as she fell backwards. As she recovered, she could hear Envy's laugh mocking her.

"That was embarrassing." Joan muttered.

Still laughing, Envy said, "I just had to do that, I couldn't help it."

Clarissa breathed a sigh of relief, glad that nothing worse happened.

Taking advantage of the distraction Joan unintentionally provided, Selene continued to lead the slaves around a curve until they were out of sight before speeding up. She led them out of the tunnel at Westwood and began guiding them to the river. She could lead them to safety, but she could only hope the others would be alright.

Joan, thinking some help may be necessary against a homunculus, remembered that Jian, Meili, and people they don't know were above them. Hoping those other two people were on their side, she clapped her hands together and made a hole in the ceiling using alchemy.

...

Jian folded his arms and wondered how they were going to warn the group now that they weren't going anywhere. They didn't know where the exit was, so they couldn't go that way. Frustrated, he wondered aloud, "How are we supposed to get to them when they won't move?"

Suddenly, the ground fell from underneath him in a startling flash of blue alchemical light. He tried to run to solid ground, but wasn't able to move quickly enough while his broken ribs hindered him. Reaching out to Shay's outstretched hand, he fell into the tunnel and hit the ground, unable to hold back a loud shout of pain. Looking up as he lay where he landed, he could clearly see Meili's expressionless face and Shay's panicked one looking down into the hole he'd fallen into.

"Are you ok, Jian?" Tess asked after the cloud of dust settled and she could see who had fallen through.

After recovering from her initial worry, Shay jumped down into the hole, landing next to Jian and suggested, "Prince, I think it would be best that you stay out of this one, no offense, but I don't think you're going to be much help in your current state."

Jian wanted to protest as Shay helped him to his feet and Meili joined them in the tunnel with Evan on her back, but knew his bodyguard was right. He sighed, reluctantly complying.

Hopping off Meili's back, Evan saw Keith and exclaimed, "Keith!"

"Evan?" The older brother responded, "I don't think this is a good place for you to be."

"Well, Jian woke up and left and I couldn't just let him get away." He defended himself. Then added in a secretive whisper, "Did you know the guy he saved is a prince from Xing?"

Returning everyone's attention to the urgent matter at hand, Jian urgently warned, "Guys, she can shapeshift!"

"Shapeshift?" Takara wondered.

"Yeah! Wanna see?" Envy responded, and then changed to her favored appearance with the abnormally black hair and red eyes that weren't nearly as friendly as any Ishvalan's. "If we weren't in this little tunnel, I could show you my true form as well."

"You mean that ugly green thing I didn't let you finish transforming into?" Jian teased.

"You really are an annoying little brat, aren't you?" Envy growled, starting toward him. "I should finish you off now while you're still injured."

"Being annoying is a little hobby of mine." Jian's smile didn't fade even when she threatened him. "I'm still fully capable of chi-blocking you while I'm injured. That's what I did last time, remember?"

Envy's expression wavered for a second before she laughed cockily once again. Still walking toward him, she suddenly tripped, falling on her face. While Envy walked past, Tess had stuck out her foot and tripped the homunculus.

Getting up, Envy turned and glared at Tess. "If I wasn't planning on making you a slave again, I'd kill you for that," she growled.

"Maybe I'll try pushing my luck." Tess smirked, with Takara still hiding behind her.

Jian laughed loudly. "Envy the great homunculus is tripped by a slave. Who can I tell for that to damage your ego and ruin your life?"

Envy sneered and jumped at Jian. He didn't even flinch, but Envy was promptly stopped by his two bodyguards. Before anyone could figure out what happened, Meili had her hidden blade embedded in Envy's forehead with blood beginning to drip down the homunculus' face.

"OUCH!" Envy exclaimed, reeling back. "That hurt! But you'll have to do better than that," she said as she pulled her head off the blade and healed, grinning again.

Takara squeaked in disgust and covered her face. Admiring his faith in the two bodyguards, Anzhela watched Jian with surprise and wistfulness, which the Prince didn't notice. Tess stared at Envy, wide-eyed and shocked.

Envy attacked Meili, feigning a punch then kicking toward her knee. Years of training allowed Meili to predict the trick and dodge, jumping farther away and out of Envy's immediate reach. Though she was confused, her face remained expressionless.

"What? No reaction?" Envy leered, expecting surprise from the ex-assassin. "You just stabbed me in the head and I'm still standing! I should be dead!"

"There isn't much that deserves a reaction from me." Meili said dryly.

"I understand now," Tess said thoughtfully, "The many souls in you grant you something near immortality.

"Bravo!" Envy said sarcastically, "Finally, someone gets it! Give her three cheers!"

"Thanks for the sarcasm," Tess stated dryly, unimpressed.

"Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!" Jian cheered, grinning.

Joan decided to act and punched Envy in the head with her left, automail arm, hoping to do some damage, even if Envy just healed.

"Ow! Is your arm made of metal or something?" Envy grabbed Joan's arm and threw her onto the ground.

Tess ran toward Envy and theorized, kicking Envy in the head as she flipped over her, "So if we kill you enough times you'll stay dead, right?"

"Ah!" Envy exclaimed, stumbling. "If you can manage to kill me enough, but that's not going to happen." Envy swiped at Tess, who easily dodged.

Joan recovered quickly and continued attacking the homunculus using alchemy and regular fighting. Her success was limited, but more effective than giving up and letting herself be killed.

Seeing that Envy wasn't going to be stopped anytime soon, paralyzing her might be the best option. They didn't have the energy to find out how many time they would have to kill the homunculus before she stayed dead and needed a more immediate solution. But now that Envy knew that Jian could render her motionless on the ground, she would avoid him.

Eventually getting over the shock of learning the identity of her mother's murderer, Laura joined in with alchemy and yelled, "You monster!"

Takara retreated to where Evan was watching. Tess continued fighting Envy, using alchemy more than alkahestry since it was close-range. She also used her daggers to injure Envy whenever possible, trying to weaken her with no visible success.

Keith used some alchemy to fight as well. Envy was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed, which soon became evident. She would dodge one attack and run right into another. But she hadn't reached the bottom of her bag of tricks yet. She transformed into an exact copy of Takara when the others didn't notice, then appeared next to them.

"Where'd she go?" Envy, in the appearance of Takara.

Takara gasped. "She's me!"

Envy gasped as well, her acting flawless. "No, she's me!"

They both glared at each other. "Don't believe her!" They both exclaimed, pointing to each other.

Tess looked at them quizzically. "Envy, do you really think you can fool us? Four of us can sense your chi."

scowling, Envy transformed into Tess and jumped at her. Amidst their catfight, nobody was able to tell which one is which by watching.

"You can't fool us Envy," Envy acted. "I can tell that's you."

"Really?" Tess asked skeptically. "Turning into me isn't going to help you."

"I didn't turn into you, you turned into me!" Envy persisted.

They both looked at each other with skeptical faces.

"Which one is Envy?" Takara asked, completely fooled.

"We could ask a question only the real Tess would know, but it's easier to point and say that one is Envy." Jian pointed at the homunculus, smirking in triumph. "You should really give it up Envy. Tess did say that FOUR of us could sense you. You can't shapeshift into more than one person at a time."

Shay stayed close to Jian, not wanting to risk Envy getting near him. Takara retreated again to watch from a distance when the fight neared, followed by Evan.

Envy gave up her shapeshifting game, seeing that it wasn't helping her. The fight continued as it did before. Even though Anzhela couldn't use alchemy or alkahestry, she could still fight. She stabbed Envy's left thigh with a dagger she pulled from her tall boots.

"Ow! Again!?" Envy complained, "You do realize I can heal, right?" She grabbed the dagger and threw it back at Anzhela, who caught it between her hands, then flipped it around to holding it at the handle, and continued to attack Envy again.

"Here's a present!" Tess shouted from a distance, throwing her daggers into the ground beneath Envy and hitting her with alkahestry spikes.

"Argh! Are you trying to get on my nerves?" Envy was getting annoyed with Tess and the whole group.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Tess retorted, feigning ignorance.

Seeing that Shay hesitated next to him, Jian asked her, "Do you want to go help them? Because you don't have to stay within five feet of me all the time."

Even though she wanted to, she shook her head. She couldn't risk screwing up again, she wouldn't let herself. So she insisted on staying by Jian's side.

He shrugged, "If you insist." He yelled at Envy from where he sat at the sidelines of the fight, like we was trying to get the homunculus to attack him, "We're just now getting on your nerves? I thought I got on yours a while ago."

"Oh, yeah!" she shouted back. "You were supposed to be dead a while ago!" Envy wanted to charge at him, but stopped herself for fear of his chi-blocking. She growled, frustrated at the whole situation.

"What's wrong? Scared of someone who can't even run for his life?" He taunted. "It's not like you're having much luck fighting them either."

"Prince, are you trying to get her to attack you?!" Shay asked, worrying about what might happen if Envy did charge at them.

"Yes, actually, I am." He replied casually, not worrying about the daggers that were coming at him.

Tess made more spikes hit Envy from her alkahestry daggers, which were still in the ground by Envy.

"Ow! Again with the spikes!?" Envy was starting to get angry. "You little punk! You're going to get what you deserve soon enough!" She pulled Tess' daggers out of the ground, throwing them at Tess and Jian, since they were annoying her most. Tess caught the ones thrown at her, tucking them back in her hidden stash.

After blocking the daggers with the armor covering her left arm, she turned to Jian and said, "Are you trying to make my job impossible?" She said it like she was joking, but she partially meant it.

He laughed, "No, that's not it." Though he didn't specify what exactly he was trying to do. He added, "You're doing a good job, especially with how hard it can be. I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Shay sighed, and returned her full attention back to the battle in front of her.

"Enough already!" Envy shouted. Without warning, she began growing and began to change to her true form. Before she was too big, she jumped through the hole in the ceiling, and then started pounding on the ground, trying to collapse the tunnel on them.

Laura blocked her eyes from the dust and rubble. "She's going to collapse the tunnel! Let's get out of here!"

"We have to get out of the way!" Joan shouted.

"That's something I didn't expect her to do." Jian says, standing up.

Tess ran toward the exit, grabbing Takara and Evan along the way, pulling them with her as they stumbled along as quickly as she could. "Come on!" She shouted to the others.

Envy continued stomping, and the tunnel began to collapse on them. Clarissa ran with the others and Shay followed after them, looking back to make sure Jian was with her.

Jian pulled Shaneka the other way and said, "We're too far from that side, we have to go this way." Normally, he'd be able to make it with time to spare, but his injuries were still in the way.

...

Once she was finished collapsing the tunnel, Envy realized the flaw in her plan. Now she couldn't catch them. "Well, that was smart." She sighed, shaking her head, shrinking back to human size.

...

The lights went out when Envy collapsed the tunnel, so Joan pulled out her cell phone and used the screen for a source of light, and everyone else used what they could for light.

As the dust cleared, Tess made sure Takara and Evan were alright, then looked around to see who all was there. After counting heads, she realized Jian, Shay, and Anzhela weren't with them.

"Everyone ok?" She asked those who were with them, hoping the other three weren't crush underneath the rubble.

"Guess what, we're missing people." Clarissa said after doing her own head count.

Meili had tried to get to Jian, but hadn't been able to. Shay was with him and he should be alright if he was on the other side and didn't get injured more than he already was. The ex-assassin focused on his chi and observed the flow of his chi to take into account the injuries he sustained, which was a skill the Yu clan assassins had developed over the years. Satisfied that the Prince hadn't injured himself any more than he had been, she turned her focus back onto the situation at hand.

...

Anzhela coughed as the dust in the air went into her mouth. "That's nasty." She mumbled.

"It looks as if we're going to have to walk back to Frontera to get out of here." Shaneka sighed, already exhausted at the thought of a six mile walk in the dark.

"You forgot that there are alchemists on the other side," Jian pointed out. None of them wanted to walk six miles back to Frontera. He looked in Anzhela's direction, though he couldn't see anything, and asked, "Are you alright?"

Anzhela nodded at Jian, though he couldn't see, and responded, "Yeah, just a little dust."

"How about you, Shay? Are you okay?"

"Yes, Prince, I'm fine." The bodyguard replied.

Jian sighed. Amidst the chaos of the fight, he hadn't gotten Tess to improve the condition of his ribs, forcing him to deal with his broken ribs a while longer. Silently, he wished they had a flashlight. The idea of using her cell phone for light hadn't occurred to her.

Once again sitting, he felt as if he was talking to the darkness, "Who knows how long they'll wait to get us out of here."


	8. Ditching Envy

In the darkness, with the lights fizzled out after the collapse of tunnel, the group searched for a source of light. Joan fished out her phone and used the screen as a flashlight.

Looking at the others, Tess suggested, "Maybe we can use alchemy to fix the tunnel so we can get to the others." Then added, "And we can keep Envy out."

Clarissa nodded in agreement.

Joan nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But we might want to wait awhile so Envy doesn't see or hear the alchemy. I don't want to risk fighting her again."

"Sounds good. I'll wait until I sense her move away." Tess replied.

So they waited until she went away, hoping it wouldn't take long. As soon as Envy was far enough that Tess could barely sense her, Tess nodded to Joan.

"Here goes nothing," Joan said, making sure that everyone was far enough from the rubble that they wouldn't get caught in it. With a clap of her hands, the tunnel was quickly fixed.

...

Above the tunnel, Envy changed back to her normal appearance, neither her true form nor Emily disguise was necessary when no one was around. Looking around, she realized that the townspeople of Westwood might come to investigate the sound of the tunnel collapsing. Hoping she could trick them into helping her dig the others out so she could catch them, Envy decided she'd run toward the town and act like she needed help. She changed back to her Emily disguise and started running toward Westwood.

"Help!" Envy cried as she ran into the town.

"What's wrong?" a townsperson asked.

"I was walking with some friends and the ground collapsed under them!" She lied. "They're trapped and I can't get them out!"

"We'll help! Come on!" A man replied. "Show us where they are."

Several other men agreed to help as well. Envy led them toward where the tunnel had been collapsed. Upon reaching the spot, they found that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"What?" Envy said, confused.

"Where's this collapsed ground you told us about?" a man asked skeptically.

"It was right here!" Envy blurted. "The ground was crumbled!"

"Right. And pigs fly." another man said sarcastically.

"But, it was here..." She trailed off. "Did I get mixed up?"

The men muttered and headed back to Westwood, leaving a confused Envy to stew in her frustration.

"Alchemy! Duh!" Envy face palmed. "How am I supposed to find them now?"

After thinking for a few minutes, Envy remembered where they had been planning to take the slaves.

"Maybe I can catch them along the way." She muttered to herself, heading toward the river. She caught a bus heading east and made her way towards Ishval.

...

Anzhela sat awkwardly in the dark, fully aware that Jian was there next to her. Glad that the darkness hid her blush from him, she struggled to find something to say when a flash of alchemical light preceded the appearance of the others and derailed her attempts at conversation with the Prince.

"That was fast." Shay observed as she stood up and offered a hand to help the injured Prince up.

"Okay!" Jian exclaimed enthusiastically as he stood up. "Let's get out of this tunnel."

Anzhela smiled a bit at Jian's enthusiasm, without going unnoticed by Meili. It was obvious to the ex-assassin that the Drachman was developing a crush on the Prince. With a glance at Anzhela, Shay came to the same realization and quickly looked away to hide her slowly developing jealousy.

Jian, of course, remained oblivious to Anzhela's crush. Meili doubted he would care even if he knew. He was a prince after all; he had many girls who loved him obsessively. But he often ignored them because they were border-line insane.

Anzhela knew she shouldn't like Jian the way she did, knowing that he was a Prince and she didn't have even the slightest chance, but there wasn't anyone like him in Drachma. Besides her former boyfriend who died in their escape from prison. She fought the tears that stung her eyes as she remembered his face. She thought sadly, "_Eric…"_

She hugged herself, and stopped walking, as if her legs suddenly refused to move. She was looking at the ground thinking of her and Eric's time together, then him dying in her arms, telling her to run. She had glanced back once to see the snow slowly burying him. With the memories rushing in, she was no longer able to hold back her tears.

Noticing the Drachman girl's distress and wanting to comfort her, Clarissa walked over to Anzhela, and asked gently, "Hey, what's wrong?

Takara noticed Anzhela crying and joined Clarissa in trying to comfort her.

Knowing it this was something she had to get off her chest or it would slowly consume her, Anzhela explained, "The reason I left Drachma was because I tried to save my boyfriend from prison, because he was wrongly accuse. I broke into the prison and got him out, but as we were escaping he was shot and didn't make it. I wanted to stay with him, but he insisted I run."

Hearing the commotion behind him and Anzhela's backstory, Jian commented, "Move on." He may have sounded unintentionally rude but continued, "He could have asked you to stay and die with him, but he didn't. You should realize what that means."

Anzhela wiped the tears off her face and said, "You're right, he wouldn't want me to be like this." She said, silently thanking him with a smile. Her smile faded a fraction when she could see on his face that he didn't feel the same about her as she did about him. Making a promise to herself to change that, she mustered the strength to move forward.

Jian smiled back but didn't say anything else. Anzhela attempted to hide a blush, but he didn't think much of it. Plenty of girls blushed when he looked at them, and he had a hard time understanding why they did it. His idea of a girl having a crush on him was someone who was pretty obvious about it. The clan leader's daughter, Cai, was that way. She would be the Yao clan's concubine for the next emperor, and she desperately hoped it would be him.

A thought occurred to Tess. She turned to the others. "Wasn't Envy with us when we were planning out the route for the freed slaves to take?"

Takara gasped. "What if she decides to go after them?"

"We should warn Selene," Tess said.

"On it." Joan announced, texting the message to Selene.

...

Selene read Joan's text, then thought about an alternate route. She sent a text to someone she knew in Ishval, warning them that Envy was coming and they needed to get the freed slaves somewhere safe.

After a few moments, a text from Delisa, the Ishvalan Selene was texting, come back and said, "_Where are you headed?"_

Reading the text, Selene replied, "_We're going to catch a train from Rheos Falls to New Optain, then to Youswell and to Xerxes from there."_

_"Would it be better if we meet up or stayed separate?"_

_"Probably better to stay separate for now."_

_"Okay, I'll take everyone to Lali." Delisa decided._

_..._

"You know, maybe I should get a new phone," Tess spontaneously thought aloud. She had lost hers somewhere between the palace and Amestris.

"For the time being, a new phone can wait." Joan said to Tess, who agreed with a nod. A few minutes later, they reached the exit that led to Westwood.

"We can finally get out of this tunnel?" Evan asked like he could hardly believe it, and was eager to get out of it.

"Yes, we can get out of the tunnel now," Tess told him.

"Yay!" Evan cheered, relieved. Even with the light they had, it was dark and hard to see. Neither Keith nor Evan liked it very much. It made it harder for Keith to know what everyone was saying and Evan just didn't like it.

Joan was the first to step out into the town. It let them out in an alley at Westwood near one of the less busy streets. Westwood was a small town, so there weren't very many people around to see them anyway.

Suddenly, Tess sensed a familiar chi. "_That can't be right,"_ she thought, "_she was at the palace."_ She started walking out of the alley, almost absentmindedly, with a confused look on her face.

"Tess?" Takara noticed her expression. "What are you doing?"

"I think I sense—" she started. Suddenly a brown Bengal cat jumped on her. "—my cat." she finished, grinning.

Jian froze and tensed, which Meili and Shay took as a sign that danger was near and stood ready to protect him. The Prince didn't want to believe what he sensed; she was supposed to stay at the palace at all times, but of course she would sneak out to find him.

"Jian!" a voice yelled. Someone both Jian and Shay knew well. The bodyguard scowled slightly.

"Oh no..." Jian trailed off and started looking back and forth looking for somewhere to hide. Meili wasn't sure what he was trying to hide from and oddly enough found herself confused. It wasn't the assassins she had once allied herself with and it definitely wasn't a homunculus.

The voice yelled again, closer and clearly female, "Jian!" When she came into sight, Meili recognized the Xingese girl and decided she wasn't a threat, but Shay remained tense.

When Shay realized who it was, she sighed in annoyance. She couldn't stand Cai, but she dealt with her. Sometimes, she wished she could just hide Jian for a while so he could have some peace and quiet while he was healing. She was never even supposed to meet him. To prevent her from having any affairs with anyone other than the emperor, she was supposed to stay in the Yao clan's palace under careful guard.

"Cai, wait!" Jian shouted right before the girl jumped onto him with a hug as she called out his name again. He felt a sharp pain from his ribs again and he crouched close to the ground hugging his now aching ribs.

She squealed in fright, "Jian, my Prince! Why didn't you tell me you were injured?!"

He looked her direction with an annoyed expression that Cai was too oblivious to notice. He thought, waiting for the pain to ebb, "_Why didn't I tell you? I didn't get the chance to."_

"What are you doing here Cai? You're supposed to stay at the palace," Jian reminded her sternly.

"I know. I snuck out because I wanted to find you. I was so worried," she explained, giving him pitiful puppy-dog eyes before proudly announcing, "I followed the cat all the way here!"

"Why did you follow my cat if you were trying to find him?" Tess asked, stroking her cat.

"My heart told me that following your cat was the way to my beloved Prince," she said dreamily, pinching Jian's cheeks. He sighed in exasperation but didn't stop her, having learned from experience that there wasn't any point to stopping her. She would just do something else just as, if not more, annoying.

There was one good thing about Cai's appearance, it reminded him that he needed some alkahestry performed on his ribs.

"Hey, Tess, I need some alkahestry done on my broken ribs."

"Sure. I just need to know where you're injured." She replied, setting her cat on her shoulder.

"How did you get injured, anyway?" Takara asked.

He recounted the story from when he and Envy had begun fighting to him passing out afterwards. He was also sure to mention the extent of the damage as far as he knew.

"Oh Jian! The guards were too ignorant to notice that your food had been drugged and let you get kidnapped!" Cai announced dramatically, briefly glaring at Shay, and gave him a tight hug. He bit back a yelp of pain and carefully loosened her grip to a less painful level.

Shay glared at the girl. "_You do realize one of those guards is standing next to you right?"_ She thought angrily.

"I suggest you let the Prince go." Shay ordered threateningly. Cai turned her head away defiantly and ignored the bodyguard, oblivious to Jian's cringing.

"Um, Cai, I think hugging him like that will just hurt him more," Tess carefully informed. "I don't think I'm skilled enough to completely heal you, but I can help some."

Evan spoke up, "The doctors said something about flail chest. I'm not sure what that is, but they said it could be life-threatening. He wasn't supposed to leave the hospital, since his injuries are still pretty severe."

"That's horrible!" Cai exclaimed, squeezing Jian again. This time, he cried out in pain.

"Did you not hear what they just said?" He asked as he loosened her grip again, leveling his tone and resisting the urge to yell. "That means no squeezing."

"Thanks for the info." Tess thought for a minute about how to heal Jian. "Cai, I'll need you to back up for a minute so I can heal him." Tess started drawing out a circle and placing her kunai.

Takara watched with wide eyes. Anzhela looked away from Cai nervously, wanting to avoid alerting Cai about the crush that they both shared for the same guy.

Cai panicked when Tess pulled out the kunai. She screamed, "No! You're not going to hurt him with your evil daggers!" And she hugged him tighter than she did before. Jian thought he heard another rib crack and suddenly found it harder to breath than just a moment before.

"Cai!" Jian wheezed desperately. "That hurts!" Pulling her arms off him this time instead of loosening her grip, he informed her, "Cai, those kunai are for her alkahestry. She's going to heal me." he explained.

Meili took a panicked Cai and held her back. The obsessive girl meant well, but she was only making the Prince's condition worse.

"I think you might want to hurry up with that alkahestry of yours." She advised Tess.

"Calm down, Cai," Tess said, finishing the circle. "See, the kunai go in the ground." She had a hard time not rolling her eyes, remembering that Cai was always like that. Placing her hands on the ground, she activated the circle. After a flash of light, Jian was partially healed and felt significantly better.

"You're not completely healed, but it's a lot better than before," Tess said, collecting her daggers.

"Thank you," he sighed in relief. Still a little ained, but Tess did say that he wasn't completely healed. He stood up and moved around a bit in ways that he couldn't do with his ribs broken like they were, but still found himself limited.

Cai immediately squeezed Jian again when Meili let her go, and the Prince had to loosen her grip yet again to accommodate his still aching ribs. His face revealed his desire to get away from Cai's obsessive hugs. Shay sighed, aware that there was little she could do.

"What's your cat's name?" Takara asked curiously.

"Her name is Ying," Tess said, cuddling the cat.

"How did the cat end up here?" Joan wondered aloud. "She would have had to cross the desert."

"We did." Cai stated cheerfully, still hugging Jian. Then she dramatically added, "We could have died!"

"I wonder how Ying managed to find me," Tess said, still cuddling the cat. Ying purred loudly.

"It's a mystery," Takara said with a slight shrug, reaching over to stroke Ying.

"What's the plan now?" Tess asked Joan. "Selene might need some help with Envy on their trail."

"One of us should go with Selene," Joan suggested. "Who'd be willing to volunteer?" Joan would be willing to do it, but she wanted to see if any of the others would.

"We will," Keith said. "I can talk with Selene using sign language, and having a state alchemist there to watch over everything seems like a good idea."

Joan nodded. "So Keith and Evan will go with Selene then." The two state alchemists exchanged phone numbers so they could text each other if they needed to.

...

Keith and Evan headed the direction that Selene and the slaves were going, quickly texting her to let her know they were coming with her.

Selene texted Keith directions to where they were headed, hoping they wouldn't run into Envy along the way. Finding a hidden area along the river, she and the freed slaves waited for Keith and Evan to catch up. She texted them directions and hid in a tree to keep watch.

Keith and Evan tried to catch up quickly and arrived at where Selene was, but couldn't see her. After sitting in the tree for a while, Selene saw the boys standing there confused and realized how good her hiding spot was. Jumping out of the tree, she walked over and greeted them and they greeted her back.

"How much farther is it to Youswell?" Keith asked in sign.

"If we head to Rheos Falls we can stow away on a cargo train that can take us where we need to go," Selene signed. "We'll just have to be careful when it makes any stops."

"That sounds good," Keith agreed.

Selene led them to where the freed slaves were hiding, then they started heading to Rheos Falls.

...

Now that he was able to move without significantly hurting himself, Jian wanted to take advantage of his regained freedom, but he couldn't when Cai wouldn't let him go. She really liked him, but he wasn't sure how to feel about her. The two weren't even supposed to know each other until Jian became emperor-if he became emperor.

It was obvious to everyone who paid Shay a second glance that she didn't like Cai very much. But Cai remained blissfully ignorant, either that or chose not to care, that she had not gained any favor with the bodyguard.

"_And to think, if Prince Jian becomes emperor, I would have to deal with Cai every day,"_ Shay thought glumly.

Meili remembered Cai from the time she and the other assassins had spent staking out the palace. They hadn't interested in the concubine, it was only the Prince they had been after. Meili remembered relishing her job as an assassin, however little it had ever shown. But now, that wasn't what she wanted. After what Jian told her, she realized that her life's ambition had been spent angry at the wrong people.

He had seen a side of her that she'd hidden from even herself for approximately twenty years. She'd learned to disguise it through years of killing any outward appearance of emotion.

"Where are we going next?" Tess asked the remaining State Alchemist among them.

Joan had to think about it for a minute. Clarissa wanted to be a State Alchemist, so asking the President about it was an option. The slave traders that were in Central had probably stopped looking for them by now, so it'd probably be safe.

She asked for everyone else's opinion, "What do you guys think?"

"Doesn't matter to me," Takara said.

Clarissa shrugged as if she didn't care, though she really wanted to go to Central and become a State Alchemist.

Miraculously managing to escape Cai's grip, Jian meandered away from the group in search of something to snack on. Spotting something that looked interesting, he didn't try to resist taking it.

"How about we explore the town for a bit and meet back here in an hour?" Tess suggested.

"I think Jian already did that," Joan laughed. "Alright, we'll meet back in an hour. Somebody might want to tell Jian that."

Tess and Takara wandered the town, looking for the stores. Tess wanted to get a new phone so she didn't have to keep borrowing Joan's, and soon found a store where Tess bought one. They also decided to go shopping for some new clothes and other things they might need.


	9. A Happy Reunion

Shaneka slipped away after she had learned what time they were going to meet back and hurried to catch up to Jian, making sure Cai hadn't seen her. He hadn't gotten too far away when she left, so she was able to follow his chi and catch up quickly.

"So, Prince, are you planning to follow this group around for a while?" The bodyguard inquired.

"I don't see why not," Jian replied before stuffed something in his mouth.

He wasn't completely sure what it was because they didn't have it in Xing, but it was sweet and he liked it. He froze and nearly choked on the weird sweet thing he had in his mouth. He recognized a girl he spotted on a wooden bench, sitting straight and proud as opposed to the more common slouching position. He almost choked on the sweet thing in his mouth when he saw her. I was Chun; she had run away from the palace awhile before and nobody had been able to find her since.

"Hey! Chun!" he called out to her. "It's been way too long since I've seen you! Is this where you've been hiding?

Chun looked up as she heard someone calling her name. Her face broke out in a smile when she saw Jian, and she rose to her feet.

"Hey, Jian. Prince, I mean." She greeted, walking over to him. Finally, here was someone she could talk to. She bowed respectfully to the Prince as it was custom. She continued when she rose, "It has been forever, hasn't it?"

"It's good to see you again." He said cheerfully and casually; he had never been one for formalities. Holding out one of the sweet treats, he offered, "Do you want one?"

Chun nodded, taking one of the sweets and thanked him. "So, what's changed since we last saw each other?"

Jian thought for a minute before replying, "Well, the assassins have been becoming more active. It's why I'm in Amestris to begin with."

"Oh no..." Chun gasped, thinking of her own run in with the Yu clan assassins. Her dark eyes looked him up and down carefully as she continued, "At least you're alright. That's what matters. How long have you been here?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't lose any limbs, though I did earn some broken ribs." He informed her. "I haven't been here too long. Just over a week or two, but everyone at the palace must be worried." He shrugged, not having bothered to keep track. It wasn't likely that any of the other clans knew of his absence, or even the people of his own clan, since the guards at the palace would keep it a tight secret.

"I'm sure you know Shaneka, she's been one of my bodyguards since—I think it was since we were nine." He motioned to Shay, who waved halfheartedly, then continued, "And I have a new one too. Her name's Meili and she is just over on top of that building over there." He pointed to the top of one of the nearby buildings and Meili could be seen crouching on top. He continued and asked Chun, "So what have you been up to lately?"

"Well, I came here mainly just to get away from everything, just to lie low," Chun replied, tilting her head slightly and stroking her long dark hair. "But I'm getting used to this life now. I'm just having trouble finding ways to make money."

"I haven't had to worry about money yet!" Jian laughed.

"That's because you either steal or have Joan pay for everything." Shay pointed out.

"And that's why I haven't had to worry."

After talking for a while, it was time for them all to meet back up like they had agreed. Jian would have kept talking to Chun but Meili came down to remind him that it was time to meet up with the others.

"Hey, do you want to come with us?" He asked Chun. Even though he asked, he fully expected her to come. She may be his sister, but to keep her true identity a secret she would have to act like she wasn't; which meant doing what he said.

"Very well." Chun agreed, knowing her duty well and what her twin brother expected. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Smiling he gestured for Chun to follow. She followed behind as Jian walked with Shay quietly to his right and Meili following on the tops of the buildings.

Jian glanced at the assassin-turned-bodyguard. He had no intention of telling either Chun or Shay that. They'd lose all trust in Meili and become suspicious of her even when Jian could tell that she had changed her assassin ways.

...

Once everyone left, Cai had gone and searched for her beloved Jian, calling his name wherever she went. She started heading back when the hour was up, counting on the probability that he would be there. She walked slowly, slightly distraught that she had been unable to find him, she still searched as she walked.

Suddenly, she found that she had no idea where she was or where to go. She hesitantly continued forward, afraid that she was going the wrong direction and only getting farther from the Prince she loved so much.

Finding herself in front of an alley, she looked back and forth and decided to cut through the alley to the street she could see on the other side. As she cut through, she heard sounds of people running behind her, but decided to pay it no heed. The Prince was more important to her than anything else around her.

...

As Tess and Takara wandered around town, Tess noticed another familiar chi. She had to focus on it for a few minutes before she could recognize why it was so familiar. "_Is that Chun?"_ She wondered silently.

"I think it's been almost an hour." Takara said, reminding them it was time to go.

"We should head back to where we are meeting the others too." Tess replied.

Clarissa had walked around the town aimlessly. She hadn't wandered far, so she was the first to get there and waited for everyone else to return. Tess and Takara made it back soon after to the meeting place and greeted Clarissa.

...

Joan was browsing through the shops without the intent to buy anything. Her thoughts wandered to what Envy said about killing her siblings. She clenched her fists at the thought and realization that everything was all Envy's fault. Joan still wanted to find her dad, but not to take revenge on him since he was innocent. She had to find out if he was alright, he wouldn't abandon them like that if he hadn't committed the crime and she wouldn't either.

She missed Sophia, who was married and had a little son, Torsten; Miles, who had planned on proposing to his girlfriend on their next date; and Cyrus, who was just a year younger than Joan. New determination spawned in her heart, Envy was going to die no matter how many times it took.

Upon noticing the time, she headed back to their agreed meeting place. When she got back there, she greeted the others who arrived first, "Hey guys, I thought I would be the first one back."

"We started heading back before the hour was up." Takara explained.

"I wonder how long it will take the others to get back." Tess said. "Jian may have gotten distracted by someone."

"Distracted by who, Cai?" Joan asked.

"Someone else actually," Tess replied. "My martial arts teacher's daughter, Chun. I was surprised to sense her chi here."

"Yeah, she knows how to fight and do alkahestry," Tess replied. "She's been learning and practicing longer than I have."

"But you know both alchemy and alkahestry?" Joan asked.

"Yep." Tess confirmed.

Takara sat, happily listening to their conversation.

...

Jian ran forward calling out energetically, "Come on slowpokes!"

Running without hurting himself and without Cai to cling to him, made him feel free again. Meili kept up with him from the rooftops with ease. Jian didn't need to glance back to make sure they were following him because he could sense their chi, but he did anyway.

Sometimes Meili struggled to understand why he did some of the things he did. He often seemed so childish, but she knew that he could be dangerous to fight even when he didn't have a weapon. He was fully capable of paralyzing his opponent without his hands, even if that was harder sometimes less accurate. Very skilled at multiple forms of martial arts, he became unpredictable and could adapt easily to situations at hand.

Chun raced after her brother, her face breaking out in a wide smile, the first genuine one in a long time. She pushed herself harder and soon caught up to Jian. She laughed happily, not caring what anyone thought. Her brother was one of the few people who could elicit these feelings from her.

"That's the spirit! I thought you looked a little gloomy." He laughed back. They reached an area with more people and had to weave and dodge around them. He suddenly cringed and had to slow down to a stop, falling behind Chun. Tess did say his ribs weren't completely healed; he most likely pushed himself too far too soon.

Chun grinned slightly as she pulled ahead. However, Jian's chi soon faded, and she turned around to look for him, getting a little worried. The problem was that there were too many people blocking her view and too much chi masking the Prince's.

Groaning in frustration, Chun turned and began to retrace her footsteps. Chun sighed quietly, crossing her arms. Of course they would get separated in the busiest place possible. She shook her head and continued on her search.

Jian looked back and forth to find Chun, but there were too many people and their chi. It was impossible to tell which belonged to his sister. He decided that getting a bird's eye view would make it easier to find each other, so he climbed on top of the buildings and joined Meili on the roof as Shay followed close by. He scanned the crowd to find Chun, humming a little tune as he searched.

"Chun!" He shouted, hoping she could hear him over the crowd. Lately, Jian had been having some pretty rotten luck.

Chun glanced around, thinking she heard someone calling her name. She looked around, nearly colliding with several people in the process. After hastily apologizing, she finally looked up and saw Jian on top of the building. Turning her back on the other people, she headed towards him.

Jian continued to scan the crowd when he spotted her heading his direction and climbing up the side of the building to join him. "There you are!" He exclaimed. "I was beginning to think finding you again was a lost cause."

They started walking along the rooftops toward the meeting place this time, not taking off at full speed to avoid losing each other again. They talked as they walked.

Chun grinned and shoved her brother playfully. "It's your own fault for getting lost in the first place." she laughed.

Jian cringed, his ribs still aching. "It's not my fault I'm still injured." He defended, still with that almost ever-present smile.

"Well, at least you're still well enough to joke around."

"When have you ever known me to not joke around?" He pointed out. He was capable of being serious, and has been before, but it wasn't very common. He had even fought in a style that mimicked drunkards, which he thoroughly enjoyed doing.

Soon enough, the arrived at the meeting place where the others were. The others could be seen waiting for them below.

"Well, we're here." Jian was sure Cai was going to show up and hug him soon. His ribs ached just thinking about it. Climbing down from the rooftop, he and his followers joined the others that were waiting there.

...

When Tess sensed Jian, Chun, Shay, and Meili coming she turned to greet them. "Hey, Chun! Long time no see!"

"Hey, Tess!" Chun called back, her eyes lighting up at the sight of her friend. "How's it going?"

"And you ignore me?" Jian complained. Meili suddenly appeared by his side, surprising Joan, though Jian showed no significant reaction.

"Well, I just saw you an hour ago, Jian, so I haven't missed you," Tess joked.

"How rude." Jian pouted. Then he threw his hands into the air and exclaimed, mood suddenly changed, "Chun's going to join us until she decides to leave. It's a happy reunion!"

Tess returned her attention to Chun, "I've been pretty good despite being attacked by assassins and forced into slavery." She said, half-joking.

Chun's eyes widened because, though Tess was trying to joke, she could still sense the truth within the words. Immediately, one of her most well-known traits kicked in, her loyalty sometimes going a little too far. "Who did it?! I won't let them get away with it!"

"It's all right, I'm fine." Tess soothed, knowing how Chun could overreact and be overprotective at times. "It happened when I was on the way home from training at the palace."

Chun didn't like the idea of the friend she'd known since she was a baby being attacked by assassins, but she let it drop and tried to think of happier subjects.

"Why do you care more that she was attacked by assassins, but not me?" Jian jumped in.

"Because that happens to you all the time." Chun clarified.

"True, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have died."

"So what have you been up to lately?" Tess interrupted, trying to change the subject.

"Not much. After I came here, I guess I was just trying to make a living for myself." Chun summarized with an embarrassed laugh, "But, I haven't been able find any way to earn money and have been struggling to make ends meet lately."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it too much if you're coming with us," Tess smirked. "Joan seems to pay for everything for some reason."

"That's because I'm the only one with a decent amount of money." Joan added, "Except for Clarissa, but she usually only pays for herself."

Chun smiled and said, "But I'd like to help pitch in."

"At least someone isn't taking advantage of me and my money." She said, glancing pointedly at Jian.

"It's either you pay, or I steal." The thieving Prince laughed with a shrug. Joan didn't bother responding to him. In his mind stealing to survive was alright, his loose sense of honor wasn't damaged.

Chun sighed and looked at her brother. It seemed odd to her that a prince would ever need to steal, but she remained silent about it. Most people, herself included imagined that he lived a perfect pampered life. But that wasn't the case; he went through intensive training everyday in case of an attempt on his life, and lots of studying of political, language, history, and various other subjects to prepare to be the next emperor. The more prepared the prince, the more likely it was that he'd be chosen as the next emperor.

Despite his less than impressive sense of honor, he could be very responsible and wise; which was the reason Meili had abandoned her position of second-in-command of the Yu clan's assassins to aide him in becoming the next emperor. His morals were higher than that of the Yu clan's prince, and his motives were more honorable.

"Where's Cai?" Takara noticed the Xingese concubine hadn't shown up yet. Which was odd, considering how obsessive she was about Jian.

Joan checked the nearby streets to see if she could spot Cai, Laura, or Anzhela, but for the moment, it seemed like they weren't close yet. They must have been far enough away that the Xingese people in the group couldn't sense their chi, because neither Jian nor Meili could sense them yet. As annoying as Cai was, Jian couldn't just abandon her. So he climbed one of the nearby buildings to take a look for the members of the group that weren't there yet.

"I see Laura and Anzhela." Jian pointed out when the pair ran within view.

"Sorry we're late. We lost track of time." Laura panted, both her and Anzhela exhausted from their run.

"I see you finally decided to show up," Joan teased. "Now we're just missing Cai, right?"

"I don't see or sense her nearby." Jian called down, worry sneaking into his voice. It wasn't like her to be late to anything, especially with anything involving him.

Anzhela looked around and said with a slight shrug, "Maybe she got lost."

"We should go look for her." Tess said.

"I'll go with you." Takara offered.

"We don't want anyone else getting lost, so we should go in groups. With the 10 of us, we can have two groups of three and one of four," Joan suggested. "Clarissa, Laura and me will be in one group. Tess, Takara, and Chun can be in another while Jian, Meili, Shaneka, and Anzhela can be in another. Any objections?"

Anzhela and Laura nodded in agreement. Clarissa frowned, worriedly wondering where Cai had wandered off to.

"Sounds good. If we find her I'll text you," Tess said.

"Alright." Joan agreed before they left. "But what if Jian's group finds her? Do any of you have cell phones?"

Jian pulled his pockets inside out to reveal nothing and shook his head. Meili and Shay followed suit. Jian's was still at the palace, Meili had destroyed her to avoid the possibility of being tracked by it, and Shay didn't have one. They all looked at Anzhela expectantly.

Anzhela pulled a sky blue cell phone from her pocket. "Yes, I got one. I'll text you if we find her."

"We'll head toward the bus stop and look around there." Tess said, turning to walk that direction.

Joan quickly gave Anzhela her number then the groups separated to look for Cai.

...

Jian spent most of his time searching from the roofs with Shay following him like a shadow. Meili seemed to be on the roofs a lot, even when they weren't searching for anyone. Jian kept calling Cai's name and with each passing moment, he became more worried, which soon became evident. He had a sinking feeling that something bad might have happened to her. While Meili remained as emotionless as ever.

With both Jian and Shay of the roofs, the ex-assassin decided to search from the street instead and joined the solitary Anzhela on the street. The Drachman had been hoping to talk to Jian, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen. She was left with Meili, who elected to keep her distance and probably wouldn't have said much to begin with.

...

Joan searched from the streets, calling out Cai's name, hoping to get an answer. If Cai could follow a cat across the desert to find Jian, then it was a mystery how she could get lost now. With or without Ying, it didn't make sense to the State Alchemist.

Joan and her group asked people if they'd seen Cai, with limited success. Some replied they haven't seen her and the ones that did would point them in a direction. They'd follow the direction and run into another person who led them in another direction and the process would continue.

Joan and her group found themselves pointed to an alleyway, which didn't bode well. They found nobody in the alley, and asked a merchant on the other side if they'd seen Cai. Even though he had been there all day, he informed them that he had not seen the obsessive Xingese girl.

From the information gathered, Cai had gone into the alley, but had never come out. She would have had to climb onto the rooftops, but she wasn't that agile so that wasn't an option, or there could be tunnels Cai had accidentally stumbled across, so they searched for those to be sure.

...

Tess's group searched, Takara calling out Cai's name, Tess hoping to sense her chi. Takara stopped often to ask pedestrians if they'd seen Cai, with little success.

After searching for a while, Tess texted Joan, _"Any luck so far?"_

Joan texted back saying, _"We think we found where she was last spotted."_

Tess texted back, _"We haven't had any luck yet. Where was she last spotted?"_

_"In some alleyway at the eastern edge of town."_ Joan replied. Another text came, _"Some people saw her go in, but nobody saw her come out. I doubt anyone bothered to look and see what happened."_

_"We'll join you. Maybe Chun or I will sense her chi,"_ Tess responded.

Turning to the other two, she informed them, "Joan's group found where she was last spotted, so we're going to head over there to help."

"I hope we find her." Takara said with her hands clasped as if she were praying.

They headed toward the east side of town. As they got closer, Tess sensed the chi of the others and headed to meet them, Takara following.

Joan texted Anzhela telling her the same thing. As soon as Jian heard, he took off in that direction as fast as he dared, wishing Cai had stayed at the palace like she was supposed to. He slowed considerably in horror when he recognized a homunculus's chi with Cai and one other person he didn't care about.

"I found her!" he shouted loudly to the others in his group and ran in the direction of the homunculus as fast as he could, ignoring the pain that was starting to come from his ribs. Shay kept up with Jian, surprised that she was actually worried about Cai. Meili stayed between Jian and Anzhela so they wouldn't lose anyone else and have to go on another search.

Anzhela followed Jian as fast as she could while texting, _"Jian found her!"_

Tess, Takara, and Chun started toward where they could sense Jian when Tess received Anzhela's text. As they drew nearer, Tess noticed the large chi of a homunculus and assumed that Envy didn't go to Ishval after all.

"She's with a homunculus!" Tess shouted, alarmed.

"That can't be good!" Takara gasped. "Do you think it's Envy?"

"I'm not sure, but it's the only homunculus we know." Tess answered.


	10. New Homunculi

After wandering into the alley in her attempt to find the others, Jian most of all, someone had run into and knocked Cai down; and now she was scared. She realized her hands stung and she looked to find that they were all scraped up and bleeding. But before she had any time to process what had happened that resulted in her meeting with the hard ground, the person shoved her in front of him like she was a shield. She yelped when she found a black clawed hand inches away from her face.

"You don't fight women, remember, Greed?" the person shouted at the owner of the clawed hand, almost desperately.

After seeming to think about it for a minute, looking at both Cai and the person who was using her as a shield, he said, "That's true, but nothing's stopping me from just taking you both. My father may have use for both of you," the other man, Greed, replied.

Before the other person could reply or stop it, Greed picked them both. Cai wasn't entirely sure how they ended up of the roofs, Greed must've climbed up there when she had been too busy panicking.

"Let me go!" she screamed. "Let me go or my Prince Jian will make you pay!"

Greed laughed. "Look, girl, I haven't met anyone I couldn't handle."

...

Jian didn't like this situation at all. If only Cai had gone running off during that hour with someone so she didn't get lost, or stayed at the palace in Xing so nobody had to worry about her in the first place. But now wasn't the time to think about that. Cai may be annoying but he didn't want any of his clan to be hurt if he could help it.

Shay glanced over at Jian worriedly, who was the farthest ahead and hoping his ribs didn't begin to ache again. Just by reading the chi of Cai and the others with her, she could tell the situation had gone from bad to worse. It seemed that Cai was moving with the homunculus.

Keeping close to the Prince, Shay understood that he was pushing himself for Cai, but was still surprised at how well he was doing. Knowing the Prince, his ribs were probably starting to bother him again, but he wouldn't care until after Cai was safe.

Jian's ribs were indeed beginning to ache, but he just ignored it. If they didn't hurry, Cai could end up in worse shape than him. The thought scared him a little, considering the circumstances. Meili followed silently. If the ex-assassin was worried at all, she didn't show it.

Though she hurried as quickly as she could, Joan just couldn't keep up well. She wasn't as fast as she used to be because the weight of her automail slowed her down and caused her to tire quickly.

Clarissa slowed down and matched Joan's pace, when she noticed the State Alchemist struggling. "You ok?" She managed to say.

"I'm fine," Joan panted. "Just getting a little tired because of my automail. I'll manage."

Clarissa nodded, but she stayed with Joan, even though the others were farther ahead and they were falling behind.

"You don't have to stay behind with me. It's alright if you go ahead. I'm just slow," Joan said apologetically. "I used to be faster, but three automail limbs get tiring after a while."

Clarissa shook her head. "It's ok, I can stay with you, sometimes keeping up with them is hard," she said, even though she could easily keep up with them, she was just coming up with excuses so she could stay with Joan.

Joan wasn't sure if Clarissa was lying or telling the truth, but dropped the subject anyway. It didn't matter either way because it didn't seem like Clarissa was going to leave.

...

Cai had soon gotten tired of kicking and screaming and eventually struck a conversation with the other person Greed had picked up. She learned that his name was Neil Wardwell, he was 14 years old, and had stolen a valuable golden watch from Greed. Neil didn't have much money and figured that, since Greed didn't seem to wear it at all, that the homunculus wouldn't miss the golden watch. But Neil had sadly been mistaken and now he was in this mess with Cai.

After walking on the rooftops for a while, Greed finally jumped down from the buildings and into an underground tunnel. They began wandering those for a while. The two captives got lost amidst the twists and turns, but Greed maneuvered through them like he knew the path well. Soon enough, they arrived in a large chamber and a man could be seen sitting in a chair in the center of the room, looking at some documents.

"Hey, Pops!" Greed shouted at the man, "I have a couple of gifts for ya!" Greed dropped the two of them in front of the man who must be his father.

"And who would these two be?" Father asked, unimpressed.

Before answering, Greed picked a golden watch from Neil's pocket and fastened it on his wrist. "I thought you could use them for some new homunculi. If I'm counting right, you still need Lust and a flask for Pride," he explained.

Father nodded. "I guess so."

Neither Cai nor Neil knew what they were talking about, but it didn't sound good. Though she was scared and confused, she had no doubt her Prince would come to rescue her.

"Greed," Father said. "Kill the boy."

Neil and Cai gasped in fright. Nobody could blame Neil for attempting to get away.

"Will do," Greed said with a grin, his hands turning black as his ultimate shield covered them.

...

Tess followed as quickly as she could without losing Takara. Chun would have an easy enough time keeping up, but Takara wasn't as fast as them and started getting tired after a while. Soon enough, everyone had met up once again at the entrance to the tunnels.

"How are we going to find Cai in this maze?" Takara asked, looking into the tunnels.

"I can still sense them, but I'm not sure which tunnels to take," Tess replied.

"Go a random direction and hope we don't get lost?" Joan shrugged uncertainly as she suggested it. She was still a little tired and out of breath from running.

Jian suggested impatiently, hoping they wouldn't arrive too late, "Just make a tunnel straight there using alchemy!"

"And why didn't we think of that?" Joan face palmed.

Tess grabbed her necklace and placed her hands on the ground. With a bright flash of light she made a tunnel. "There. Let's go." She started running through the tunnel she had just made, with the others close behind.

Jian was the first out of the tunnel an in the large chamber. What they found was a man in the center of the room, another man standing over the dead body of a young teenage boy, and Cai, who looked mortified. It was immediately obvious that the man standing over the teen was the homunculus they had sensed, the one that had taken Cai.

Jian's primary concern was Cai. He ran forward but was stopped by Greed. Not wanting to deal with this, Jian tried to chi-block him, but Greed's skin was unusually hard. Shaking his hands from the pain, Jian dodged a punch from Greed.

"It didn't work?" Jian exclaimed, confused when Greed was still moving fine.

"What? That little punch you threw at me?" Greed asked. "It's a little hard to hurt me through my ultimate shield, especially with that wimpy attack."

Seeing that Jian's chi-blocking wasn't working, Tess tried to run past Greed, but he blocked the way. She tried jumping over him, but he caught her and shoved her back.

"Sorry, Toots, I may not fight women, but I can't let you interrupt," Greed informed.

Takara wanted to run past and try to get to Cai, but Tess noticed her getting ready to run and stopped her. "Stay back, it's too dangerous," Tess warned.

Takara sighed, unable to keep from feeling useless. "Fine."

Joan clapped her hands and ran forward. Maybe some alchemy would help them. She destroyed the ground underneath Greed's feet and attempted to run past, but Greed jumped back onto solid ground and pushed her back as well.

"Why are so many of you girls?" he complained. "You're making this difficult."

Father pulled out a red stone and Joan couldn't hold back a gasp. She exclaimed, "That's a philosopher's stone! Stop him!"

Grapping Cai's wrist and looking at her scraped up hands, he said approvingly, "That makes it easier."

Jian tried to rush past again, only to have to dodge another attack from Greed and being halted. "Cai!" he called.

"Jian!" she shouted back, trying to pull away from Father's grasp, with no success.

Laura gasped loudly when she saw the philosopher's stone, the clapped her hands together, and then slapped them on the floor to send a bunch of spikes at Greed.

Tess tried throwing her kunai by Cai to do alkahestry, but Greed swatted them out of the air before they could get past him.

"Nice try, but I still can't let you interrupt," he persisted smugly.

Chun charged their homunculus opponent directly and landed a direct kick to the side of his head, her automail making it lethal under most circumstances, but Greed remained standing and uninjured. She leaped back and watched the ultimate shield crawl away from the place she just kicked. Silently, she wondered, "_Why doesn't he just cover his head too?"_

"Why do you keep trying?" Greed questioned and he turned to face her. "Obviously nothing is working. Just give it up already."

Clarissa watched for a minute, wanting to learn about Greed before she started fighting him. She noticed most, if not all of their attacks did nothing to deter him. "_Should I... No, that didn't work out very well. I'll just stick to normal Alchemy. All we need to do is distract him long enough that somebody could slip past and grab Cai."_ Even with Clarissa helping, the attacks they dished out were still useless.

Noticing that Greed wouldn't fight girls, Shay had hidden her face with her mask before joining the fight. Since he couldn't tell that Shay was a girl while her armor and mask were on, he fought her like he did Jian. Even though Jian couldn't chi-block Greed with the homunculus's ultimate shield, if the Prince could catch him off guard it might work. But there wasn't enough time.

"Hey, Father!" Greed shouted. "Do you think you get Pride to come and help me? There are too many girls and it's getting really annoying!"

Father paused and didn't drop the philosopher's stone onto Cai's scratched-up hands yet. "Pride, you can come get your flask now," he said to the air.

As he said it, shadows seemed to move along the ground toward Neil's body, and engulfing it, taking control of it. Neil stood up and opened his once blue eyes, that were now purple, yet it still looked like Neil.

Anzhela gasped. "Oh gosh, what the...?" she mumbled quietly.

"_Two now?" _Shaneka thought anxiously. _"This isn't good."_

Pride turned towards the fight. With a small smile he joined in, aiming a flesh-slicing shadow at Jian.

"_What is up with those shadows?"_ Clarissa thought. Clarissa stared at the shadows at the shot towards Jian. "What in the...?" she murmured aloud, too stunned to do anything.

Jian jumped out of the way to dodge, but was surprised when it didn't reach him. He saw Greed standing between Jian and Pride, having deflected the shadow. Greed's sleeve was a torn, but he didn't seem to care. The Prince paused for a moment to wonder why Greed was defending him.

"Pride, I'm fighting these two. You take care of the girls!" Greed stated, answering Jian's unasked question.

"Do these homunculi have something against me?" Jian asked Shay. "They seem to like attacking me. Why does everyone want to kill me?

"Maybe it's because the rest of us are girls," Chun offered teasingly.

"It's not just Greed," Jian objected. "Envy, Greed, and now Pride," he counted, and then added, "and not to mention all the assassins."

Laura glared at Pride and Greed. Pride sighed, then turned his shadows towards the nearest girl.

Joan didn't like the look of Pride's shadows turning towards her. She clapped her hands together to get ready for an attack. Pride's shadows shot straight towards her, going for a direct attack. She put her hands on the ground and a wall of rock shot up from the ground to block the deadly shadows. Just to be safe, she jumped to the side so she wouldn't get skewered. Pride broke through Joan's wall easily and headed straight for her like she had done nothing to stop him, and she found herself thankful she had jumped to the side.

_"How do we fight shadows?"_ Tess wondered, getting ready to dodge if need be. If she needed to she could protect Takara as well.

Takara had retreated to the tunnel they had come through and watched nervously. Laura clapped her hands together and then slapped them on the two closest walls, creating fists that slammed into Pride. The homunculus flew through the air, hit the ground painfully, but proceeded to get back up just fine. Even though it didn't work the first time, Laura tried again.

This time, however, another shadow shot out from around Pride to cut the fist in half, sending the two chunks flying past him, and narrowly missing Chun. The rest of the shadows continued to target Joan. Pride had noticed she and Laura seemed slower than the rest, so he aimed most of his efforts on them.

Laura gasped. "Crap!" She hurried and made a double edged spear from alchemy, blocking Pride's next attack with a glancing blow using the spear, which deflected the shadow, but broke the newly made spear. She hurriedly fixed it with her alchemy.

Deciding to help, Clarissa clapped her hands together and transmuted a sword and began to attack the shadows relentlessly. She found it strange to be fighting shadows, and would have laughed in they weren't trying to cut her in half.

Clarissa noticed that Pride could fight all three of them at once and acted as if it didn't matter. "_It probably doesn't matter. For all we know, he's probably holding back,"_ she thought as she avoided one attack and jumped out of the way of the other. _"How are Joan and Laura managing to avoid these attacks?!"_ She was barely dodging them, and she was faster than both of them.

Tess joined the fight, coming to Joan's aid and using a couple kunai to parry the shadows. Pride started fighting all four of them at once, focusing on the weakest, which in his mind was the slowest. He just blocked everyone else and attacked Joan repeatedly, trying to tire her. Immediately after Tess joined in, Chun followed to make sure her friend made it out all right.

Joan desperately tried to dodge the attacks, barely managing not to get skewered each time. But she was starting to slow down more, and the shadowy attacks were getting closer and closer to hitting her each time. At this point, they were each only a hair away and some grazed her skin.

Clarissa was starting to get tired, and when she glanced over at Joan and Laura, it was clear that they were tiring too. Joan was getting too close to getting hit for comfort. "_This isn't going well, what do we do?"_ she thought desperately.

Pride could tell the slower girl was tiring quickly now. Knowing this was his chance, he attacked her with three shadows, positioning them so that at her current speed she would probably avoid the first one, maybe the second one if she was lucky, but he would at skewer her with the third one. He He smirked nefariously, knowing Joan was done forr.

Joan saw the shadows coming and realized that she wouldn't be able to dodge them all. If she dodged one, she's jump right into another and be hit either way. She was too slow to be able to avoid being brutally murdered. She got ready to try and dodge anyway, deciding it was better to try than to just give in to her fate, and hoped to get lucky.

Clarissa cringed and glanced away, hoping Joan would be okay. She wished there was something she could do, but she didn't notice the attack until it was too late. Even using alchemy, by the time she finished transmuting Joan would either be dead, hurt or, very, very lucky. Tess saw the shadows going for Joan and realized that the State Alchemist wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Despite Chun's shouted warning not to, Tess ran forward and shoved Joan out of harm's way then nimbly dodged the shadows herself. Seeing they were both alright, Chun breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Believing the shadows hit her, Pride smiled again. For his first day with a body for a flask, everything was going well. Pride's smile disappeared when the dust he threw up settled and he realized that Joan escaped alive. His morale remained unaltered, however, and he persisted his tireless onslaught of shadows.

Surprised, Joan turned to see if Tess was alright and was relieved to find that she was. Tess definitely wasn't as slow as Joan. It bothered the alchemist to know that she might have been able to do that if her automail didn't slow her down and degrade her nimbleness.

"Thanks for the help!" Joan called to Tess. "I really needed it."

"Isn't that what friends are for?" Tess replied, smiling.

"I would hope so," Joan replied. "But now, we need to fight so we don't die."

Tess stayed near Joan so she could help keep her from getting skewered, keeping a close eye on the shadows.

"I would say that this isn't necessary," Joan said to Tess, "But unfortunately, I think it is." She chuckled nervously.

Clarissa sighed with relief, then continued to fight Pride. "_We need to get out of here,"_ she thought.

Jian was fighting Greed with Shay, trying to find an opening where he could get past the homunculus, but with no success. Greed seemed content to hold them back, with less effort wasted on trying to kill them. Jian glanced nervously in Cai's direction as she was trying to pull her hands away in vain. Father dropped the philosopher's stone onto her scratched hands and watched it vanish before releasing his hold on her.

The Prince wasn't sure what would happen, but he knew it would be bad. He suddenly darted in Cai's direction, somehow managing to escape Greed. Either that, or Greed hadn't tried to stop him. He thought he could hear Greed laughing behind him, but he ignored it. Coming to a stop next to Cai, he knew there was nothing he could do.

"Jian..." Cai said, her eyes wide in fear. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I don't..." he stammered, but was interrupted by Cai screaming in pain with such agony that it begged to rip Jian's heart from his chest. Urgently, he shouted, "Cai!"

Hearing Cai's scream, Takara cringed, wishing she could help somehow and Shay stopped fighting Greed for a split second to stare at Cai. The Xingese girl began to jerk around spasmodically, as if she had no control of her body's writhing movement. Jian watched helplessly next to her, his face contorted in disappointment in himself and fear for Cai's well-being.

...

This was a new experience for Cai. All she felt was pain, and now she had forgotten to feel scared. It gave a new meaning to agony. She found herself in what looked like a void of screaming red souls, calling out in sorrow with the same agony she felt. One stood out from the rest, larger and more powerful, and it seemed to address her.

"Finally, Father decides to get me a body," it said, "Took him long enough."

"Who are you?" Cai asked.

"I'm Lust, a homunculus, and I'll be taking control of your body now."

"What if I tell you I won't let you?" She inquired.

"It doesn't matter. You'll die anyway." Lust scoffed.

She confidently announced, "I doubt it. My Prince Jian will save me."

"And who is that?"

"My future husband and Emperor of Xing." Cai bragged.

"We'll see about that." It was difficult to tell, but Lust seemed to smirk.

The entity engulfed what was left of Cai, leaving her no will to fight back with and no choice but to surrender. Rather than resist and tire her soul out until it was extiguished and she ceased to exist, Cai allowed it to engulf her. Her agony and renewed fear left her, replaced with the calm surety that Jian would figure out how to save her.

...

Cai finally stopped writhing, but the tension in the air remained. Father, Greed, and Pride watched expectantly, while the others weren't sure what to expect and were tense. The philosopher's stone didn't kill Cai, but they didn't know happened yet.

"Cai?" Jian asked uncertainly.

"Is that her name?" Lust asked. "Sorry, she's gone."

"Hey, sis! Good to see you!" Greed greeted. "You're homunculus number seven!"

Lust glanced at Father, "You waited to give me a body until I was last?"

"None of the other six I've met seemed appropriate for you." Father responded calmly and Lust nodded in understanding.

"There's seven of them?" Takara squeaked.

"Seems like it," Tess said, dodging another shadow.

Jian stepped back from the homunculus who now occupied Cai's body. He face screamed of disbelief, refusing to accept that Cai was gone. She was too annoying to be gone. After all that they had gone through, they were still too late. Jian fell to his knees and put his head in his hands. He couldn't even save the girl who believed he could do anything.

Shay knelt down next to Jian. "Prince, I know what happened is bad, but we can't stop now, we need to get you out of here!" Her voice was calm, but she was almost as sad about what happened to Cai as Jian was, she was just holding it in for his sake. She glanced back at Greed, who didn't seem like he wanted to fight them anymore. Shay disregarded the somewhat chivalrous homunculus, concerned for the Prince who she had never seen act this way before. She cried desperately to snap him out of it," Prince, please! We need you!"

Jian didn't seem to hear Shaneka's pleas and Lust laughed mockingly at him. "You humans are so pathetic. One human dies and you collapse as if the world has ended, though in reality, you're all just pathetic insignificant creatures below the insects that swarm the ground."

Unable to speak through the pain and fury he now felt, Jian rose to his feet, face shaded as he moved forward to attack. However, he could bring himself to hurt Cai and froze, body shaking as he tried to convince himself to kill the monster who took Cai away. He dropped back to his knees at Lust's feet when his body refused to believe the reality that it was Cai he was trying to attack.

"My point proven," Lust smirked. "Normally, I would kill you, but you're kind of cute, so I'll let you off easy this once." She grabbed his hair and thrust her knee into his chest with surprising force, knocking the breath out of him.

Shay was less reluctant to attack, but she was more concerned for Jian's safety. Gasping and catching Jian as he slumped she glared up at Lust and growled, "Touch him again and I'll slice you to pieces. I don't care who's body you have."

"Just try it," Lust smirked. "Once you're done with that, I'll return the favor. And I doubt you'll recover as quickly as I will."

Turning back to Jian after shooting one more death glare at the homunculus who looked like Cai, she waited for him to recover from the kneeing, then started dragging him towards the exit with one arm looped under his right arm. Jian wasn't unconscious but didn't try to walk, but that didn't stop Shay from dragging him away. The bodyguard noted how his left hand hovered to his ribs, realizing the possibility that Lust had injured him again.

Meili appeared behind Pride and stabbed the back of his head with her hidden blade and a katana found its way through his back and out his chest. She knew full well that it wouldn't kill him, but it would give them enough time to run to the exit and allow for a better chance of escape.

"Let's go!" she yelled, as if issuing an order. She hurried over to where Jian and Shay were and helped get Jian out by looping her arm underneath his left one. He seemed to have lost his grip on reality at the moment and had simply given up. Meili could relate to his feelings of loss and devastation, as well as disappointment in oneself's performance.

Joan thought she was extremely lucky at this point to be more or less uninjured. She had a few scrapes and bruises, but she'd be fine. Better than Cai or that boy who's body was now Pride's.

"Let's get out of here!" Tess yelled to the others as she grabbed Joan and started pushing her and Takara up the tunnel. Joan ran as quickly as she could, which was still pretty slow compared to the others because of her automail and the fact that they were just fighting desperately for their lives. Anzhela ran with them, following right behind Laura and Chun ran just behind Tess. Clarissa ran near the end of the group.

Eventually, Jian started running on his own, though halfheartedly, telling himself they would figure everything out later. Meili let him go and slowed to run behind him, but Shay stuck close after trusting him to move forward.

...

Pride healed quickly, then looked over to Father. "Should I follow them?" he asked.

"If you want to," Father told Pride.

_"Why not?"_ Pride shrugged, then walked closer to the tunnel. The shadows returned, shooting towards the tunnel.

Joan glanced back, and immediately regretted it when she saw Pride's shadows coming and knew that she'd be the first attacked. That's what she got for being so slow and being behind everyone else.

...

"Guys! We've got unwanted company!" she shouted a warning to the others.

Clarissa glanced back, and saw the shadows. "_Crap! Why can't you just leave us alone?"_ she thought testily.

Pride did exactly what Joan expected, he went for the two that were farther back. Joan tried to run faster, but with limited success. Her legs weren't tired, but her lungs were; and they begged her to stop and gasp for sufficient air.

Anzhela saw the shadows headed for Joan. She gasped and pushed Joan out of the way just in time, but at her own expense. Pride smirk in success when he sliced a fair gasp into the Drachman's side. Knowing this girl wouldn't be able to avoid him very easy now that she was injured, he started attacking her relentlessly.

Noticing Anzhela's injury, Clarissa's mind whirred as she tried to be helpful. Seeing Pride aim for the defenseless Drachman who held her dagger shakily in her right hand as he left pressed against her wound, Clarissa panicked. Even though she knew she had little control over the alchemy she planned to perform, she quickly clapped her hands, slipped on a white glove, aimed at the end of the tunnel where Pride's shadows were, and snapped her fingers. An explosion of fire quickly filled the tunnel, evaporating any shadows in the area, including Pride's.

Joan had to admit that she was surprised. The secret of flame alchemy had been lost for years, ever since President Roy Mustang took it to his grave. .

As the flames raged, an idea formed in Tess's mind, after creating a couple walls behind them, she made a small tunnel in the ground. "Quick! Get in!" she shouted to everyone. "I'll close it behind us before he breaks through the walls and we can disappear."

Takara and Tess jumped into the tunnel without hesitation. Anzhela may have avoided being killed, but they should stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Joan helped Anzhela in the tunnel Tess made while the others jumped in as well.

"Clarissa, come on!" Joan called out from the extra tunnel Tess made. They would escape through the tunnel then seal it while Pride thought they kept going up through the existing tunnel. Clarissa followed them into the separate tunnel but stayed at the back of the group in case Pride caught on to their facade.

Tess closed the tunnel behind them to stop the flames, and Pride most of all, from following them. Pride ducked away from the flames and hid his face fromt he light. Once the flames died down without Clarissa there to fuel them, he continued forward to search for them, and missed the hasty alchemy hiding the tunnel they escaped through.

Anzhela gripped her injured side and her hand felt wet and sticky and the blood started to stain her fingers. They pressed forward a little farther and Joan helped her go forward.

Once they got further down the tunnel, Tess turned to Anzhela. "Here, let me at least stop the bleeding for now."

"Why don't I do it? I'm more experienced." Chun objected.

"Be my guest." Tess allowed.

Once Chun drew a circle and placed her kunai in the right places, Joan let Anzhela sit down. The Drachman moved her hand from the wound as, in a flash of light, Chun stopped the bleeding. The pain decreased but still persisted, though moving around too much would risk the wound bleeding again. Anzhela glanced at the Xingese Prince, trying to think of things she could say to comfort him.

Jian sat, back slumped and eyes locked on the ground, more defeated than he remembered feeling for a long time. He couldn't expect himself to lead an entire country that would rely on him if he became emperor if he could even save one girl who had believed he could do anything. Maybe if he'd been more focused, he could have been more helpful. His head sunk back into his hands as he bit back the curses he wanted to direct at everything.

Shay nervously watched Jian tear himself apart, unsure of how to console him in this state that she had never seen him in. "Prince..." she whispered.

The bodyguard became more worried every minute the Prince stayed like this. She understood how horrible it had felt to fail in an attempt to rescue someone, but out of all the ways she had thought he might have reacted, this was not one of them. Which brought to mind the stunning realization that he can suffer too, despite the fact he didn't seem to be that type of person. Perhaps he remained lighthearted and immature to ease the burden of the Yao clan's fate on his shoulders. Now that he experienced the failure to protect one of his clansman, Cai, he realized just how heavy that weight really was.

Analyzing Jian's reaction towards his failure to protect Cai, Meili knew his motives for becoming Emperor were as pure as she made them out to be when he had spoken to her. However, she wasn't any less surprised than the others to see his resolve crumple so quickly. The ex-assassin recalled that, even under the threat of death, he had refused to teach Kang, the Yu clan assassins' leader, and the rest of the assassins chi-blocking in his own childishly defiant manner and used his unique skill to escape. Because Meili avoided being paralyzed by the Prince, she was sent after him. She wasn't sure how it happened, but he convinced her that he would make a better emperor than her own clan's prince. He had told her, without meaning to, that her life's ambition of revenge had based upon a misconception.

Nobody noticed Meili sigh silently, the Prince had a lot to learn before he could become the Emperor of Xing. His limits was one of them.

Anzhela approached Jian with concern written on her face, but he didn't seem to notice. She debated about whether or not to talk to him, but shied away instead.

"We should get away from here as soon as possible so they don't find us," Tess said, and then approached Jian. "Don't give up hope. Maybe we can find a way to get Cai back, but for now we need to get out of here."

He shrugged Tess off and didn't say anything in response. He desperately wanted to believe Tess, but he had always been so confident in himself, and now that he had tasted the loss of defeat, he wasn't sure he could hold onto the hope he had lost when Cai had uncharacteristically struck him.

"Ready to keep going?" Tess asked everyone, turning her attention away from Jian's inward plight for the moment.

"Yeah," Takara said quietly, a little lost in thought.

"Yeah, we should get out of here quickly. I don't like being in these tunnels," Joan said, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

As they walked, Joan decided to ask Clarissa, "How did you learn flame alchemy? I thought the secret had been lost for years, ever since President Mustang died."

Clarissa blushed a little. "Yeah well... I've been researching it for a long time. Apparently, when he was learning it, he took a few note on a few pieces of paper, just a little bit of the basics. I'm guessing he couldn't always have whatever or whoever he was learning it from with him twenty-four/seven, so he took notes. I found those. But I'm not very good at it..."

Laura turned to her sister. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

Clarissa shrugged, becoming nervous under all of the attention. She buried her hands in her pockets.

Joan could sense her discomfort and tried to help. She pointed out, "Probably because she hasn't seen you for a long time."

Clarissa lingered quietly at the back of the group, happy for the change of subject when they spotted the light at the end of the tunnel. They exited into the outskirts of the city, quietly praising the sweet sunlight and fresh air.

"Where do we go now?" Joan asked. "I think the closest town is Eastwood. But I could be wrong."

"I think Frontera's closer," Takara piped up.

"You're probably right. We'll head back there," Joan decided. Let's go catch the bus back.

They headed to the bus stop and got on the bus when it came. Jian, Meili, and Shay seemed to prefer sitting on the roof of it. Once they got to Frontera, they got off the bus and walked through town again.


	11. A Fight on a Bus

By this time, Envy had already arrived in Ishval and had been lying in wait for the escaped slaves to arrive. She had already searched for them in the surrounding ruins and found no trace of them. Little did she know that they were in Youswell and were starting to cross the desert. So she waited fruitlessly, slowly growing more and more frustrated.

* * *

Not particularily fond of the hot weather, Keith and Evan followed Selene to Youswell. They were raised in the Northern sector of Amestris, in Taffette. Taffette was a small town in the southern part of the Northern sector. It wasn't exactly freezing there, but it wasn't as hot as it was in the South East. They both trudged on, sweating a great deal.

Selene noticed they boys' discomfort and signed, "Sorry, the desert is even hotter than here. We need to make sure we have enough water so we don't get dehydrated."

"Doesn't it also get really cold at night?" Evan asked. Not that he was happy about either extreme heat or extreme cold. But both of the boys had to admit, issues with the temperature was better than dealing with Envy.

Selene nodded. "That's why we have blankets as well as water," she signed.

Soon enough, they were standing at the border, looking out at the miles of sand and Evan sighed. The young boy wasn't looking forward to the trek across the desert to the ruins of caravan they were going to travel with wasn't going to wait for them, so they had to keep moving forward.

* * *

As he was walking home from work, a doctor who worked at the hospital in Frontera passed the group and did a double take. Stunned to recognize the Xingese teen that had been brought in with several broken ribs that had vanished the day before. He ran over to the group and stopped them.

"Wait a minute!" he said, addressing Jian. "Aren't you the boy who left the hospital before getting discharged?"

"Hmm?" Jian replied, surprised. "Was I the only one that did that?"

"Normally people with flail chest won't be released until their injuries aren't life-threatening," the doctor said pointedly.

"But-" Jian started, but the doctor interrupted him.

"I'm taking you back to the hospital!" he almost shouted, turning to the group. "And I can't believe the rest of you didn't bother to bring him back!"

"He seems fine to me." Meili stated.

"Fine? Fine!? Flail chest is life-threatening! He could die if he keeps going around like this!" The doctor was almost yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Calm down," Tess said, "Just take a look at him, he's already healed partially."

"What!?" the doctor grabbed Jian, almost too roughly, and examined his ribcage in disbelief. "How is that possible?"

"Hey!" Jian shouted, pushing the doctor away from him. This doctor was already getting a scary look from Meili and Shay. "I'm fine!"

"But, how?" he asked.

"I used alkahestry to heal him," Tess explained. "It didn't completely heal him, but he's not about to keel over and die."

"I couldn't have been in very bad shape anyway if I could just get up and walk away." Jian added. "Are you sure my condition was life-threatening?"

The doctor stood there, dumbfounded. He didn't know much about alkahestry, and certainly wasn't aware of how useful it could be in the medical field. Noticing the incredible state Jian was in, he had to wonder why more doctors didn't practice alkahestry. It was certainly becoming more common since Emperor Ling Yao and Fuhrer Roy Mustang, a General at the time, opened up trade route between the two countries.

"If you thought he was life-threateningly injured," Joan began, "Then why did you check his ribs so roughly?"

"I thought...but he was..." he had trouble forming sentences. After a minute he registered Joan's question and realized how bad his mistake could have been. "Sorry!" he hastily apologized. "I guess I was, uh, so shocked a-about it. I-I didn't realize-I should have..." he stammered.

"You were so flustered that you didn't realize you should have been more careful?" Tess offered.

The doctor could only nod, unable to say so himself.

"Well, we should be going now," Joan said nervously. "We need to get to Central."

"Well, I guess I can let you go without taking you back to the hospital," he said slowly, attempting to compose himself. "I think I'll just continue home now." he turned and resuming his walk home.

Tess was trying not to laugh as she said, "Well, that was interesting."

While Jian normally would've joked about that whole thing, he obviously wasn't in the mood. Everyone else was stifling laughter desperately, but once the doctor was out of earshot, Tess was the first to crack. She burst into laughter, soon followed by everyone who could keep their amusement in check. The only ones not taking the situation humorously were Jian, Shay, and Meili.

Calming down a bit, Joan managed to say, "We really should be going. There's something I want to do in Central."

The State Alchemist had made a promise to Clarissa, and she intended to keep it. In Central, Joan would take Clarissa to see the President, in hopes that he would allow her to become a State Alchemist as well. Tess and Takara calmed down enough to agree with Joan.

"So, we take the bus back to Fortress Castell, and can take the train to Central from there," Joan said, mostly to herself.

Takara absentmindedly nodded, confirming Joan's comment about their route.

"The next bus doesn't seem to be for about an hour or so," Joan observed. "So maybe we can go get something to eat."

Takara's stomach growled loudly. She giggled, "My stomach agrees."

Laura nodded in agreement. "Mine does too."

Clarissa nodded at the idea of food.

"Alright, we'll go see what we can find," Joan said, looking at the buildings and hoping to find a good place to eat. She didn't know this town well, so she really didn't know where to look.

"How about here?" Joan asked as they approached a restaurant, not realizing how hungry she was until then.

"Okay guys, what do you want?" Joan asked as she sat at a table and looked at the menu, trying to decide what to order.

They all ate their food then simply conversed to kill time until they left to catch the bus.

The 8th Prince of Xing contributed little to the conversation as he tried to remember the last time he'd ever felt like so upset, but nothing came to mind. Maybe he deserved something like this, just so he knew what it felt like it. Still, he hated feeling like a failure.

Shay glanced at Jian. She had hoped he would have lightened up a bit by then, but she had to remind herself to give him some time. Like she blamed herself for Jian's kidnapping, the Prince blamed himself for what happened to Cai.

Normally, Jian would've perked up around the food, but this time he really didn't care. Anzhela looked over at Jian with a concerned face. She walked over to him. "Hey, how're you holding up?"

He shrugged, not really sure anymore. "Fine, I guess."

Anzhela gave him a concerned look. "You know, I know how you feel...losing someone you know."

He furrowed his brow, not sure if it was quite the same. "I understand what you're trying to say, but it's more complicated than that. You lost your boyfriend, and you have a right to be upset about that, but I..." he paused before continuing. "How can I be Emperor, and rule over the entire country Xing, if I couldn't even take care of one helpless girl that counted on me?"

Anzhela tilted her head at him. "But you need to do what you told me, don't dwell on the past. Focus on the course ahead," she said trying to help. "I'm sure you'll be a great emperor."

He sighed, she did have a point. But he still felt that the situation was different. He appreciated the effort to comfort him, but now didn't seem like the right time to him.

Give a small smile that didn't feel genuine to him, he said, "Thanks."

Shay pulled Anzhela away. "Thanks for trying to help," she said, clearly grateful.

Anzhela nodded to Shay with a small smile. "I'm just a bit worried for him."

Shaneka nodded. "I am too. I've never seen him like this before," she said.

Tess had pulled out some cat food and fed Ying while they were all eating. The cat had been in and out of sight frequently and was easy to forget about, since she mostly provided for herself and followed Tess around.

Pretty soon they hurried to caught the bus and Jian, yet again, sat on top of it with Meili and Shay. Joan almost fell asleep on the bus ride to Fortress Castell while Laura was quickly fast asleep.

Takara noticed it getting dark and suddenly realized, "Wait, when was the last time we slept?"

"Is it still the same day or is it a different day? We were in tunnels for quite a while," Tess wondered aloud.

"I have no idea," Joan said, rubbing her eyes. "I lost track of time."

"If it's the same day, then it's been a really long day," Tess said.

"And if it's not, then we've missed a few meals," Takara said.

"I think it's been a long time since we ate, even if it is the same day," Joan said.

"Yeah," Takara said. "Good thing we ate a big meal before the bus came."

Tess stroked her cat as her thoughts wandered to Selene's group and Envy, wondering if Selene had changed their route or if they had still gone to Ishval. She hoped that they hadn't run into Envy again. If they did, it more than likely wouldn't end very well. But it was more likely that Selene had compensated for the new information and gone someplace other than Ishval. She certainly hoped so.

* * *

On the top of the bus, the Prince's thoughts wandered. Doubting his ability to do what he was born for, he was suddenly wondering why Meili had betrayed her clan to help him. At the time, he had been grateful for the change of events, but he was no longer so sure.

"Meili, why didn't you kill me like you were ordered to?" Jian suddenly asked the former assassin, forgetting about his intent to hide that particular information from Shay.

Surprised but not showing it, Meili stated, "We've been over this Prince, my motives have changed."

"Yes, I know that, but what made you think I could become a good Emperor?"

"You think of what the people need more than the Yu clan's prince does."

Jian countered, "There is a difference in thinking about what they need, and being able to provide it."

Meili wasn't sure how to reply, hoping he wasn't going where she thought he was. Finally she said, "That's why I'm helping you."

Shay frowned when Jian started talking to Meili. _"Kill him?" _she thought when she processed his first sentence.

Glancing at Meili, she suddenly thought back to when she was fighting the assassin back in Xing. As the other assassins raided the Palace and abducted the Prince, a single assassin stalled the bodyguard. The opponent had been a very skilled female assassin. Clad in black attire that now looked suspiciously similar to what Meili wore. She had wielded two katana as well. The assassins nose and mouth had been covered, but her hair had been styled exactly like Jian's new bodyguard as well.

"It's you!" Shay screamed as she pointed at the ex-assassin, suddenly realizing the identity of the assassin responsible for keeping her away from the Prince in his time of vulnerability.

Realizing that Shay had finally recognized her, though she hoped the bodyguard wouldn't figure it out, Meili played dumb. She wanted to avoid a fight, if possible. The two were more or less equally matched when the ex-assassin wasn't trying to kill her opponent. But now that they were on the same side, protecting the Prince, killing Shay would have to be avoided.

"What are you talking about?" Meili asked, very convincingly acting confused. She was a skilled actor and lied well enough to almost convince herself that her lies were true.

Jian looked equally, though genuinely, confused. "Shay? What are you talking about?" He only had vague memories about what had happened in Xing when he was abducted, since he had been barely conscious at the time.

"Don't you dare play dumb with me," she growled, drawing her katana. "I know who you are, assassin!""

Meili sighed, "The Prince already knows that." Unworried, the ex-assassin knew she could hold off the bodyguard's onslaught of attacks if they came.

Shay glanced over at Jian. "You knew this, yet you didn't think to tell me?"

"I knew how you would react." Jian shrugged. As he slid down the side of the moving bus, he informed them, "Now, if you excuse me, I think I'll get on the bus while you settle things."

* * *

Shay had screamed loud enough for the others to be able to hear her from inside the bus.

"What's going on up there?" Joan wondered aloud.

"Who knows," Tess shrugged. With Takara dozing off beside her.

Anzhela added, "Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing."

"I would suggest we go check it out if we weren't in a moving vehicle," Joan said, partially joking.

"Yeah, that might not be the best thing to do," Tess smiled as she imagined climbing out the window of the moving bus to investigate.

"We'll ask them about it when we get to Fortress Castell. It shouldn't be too much longer until we get there." Joan decided.

"As long as they don't kill each other before we get there," Tess joked.

Joan laughed. Then said, "They wouldn't kill each other... would they?"

"Nah, I doubt they would kill each other," Clarissa said with a chuckle.

Turning her head to look out the window, Joan was surprised to see Jian tapping on the window rather than the expansive landscape of Amestris. When he motioned for her to open the window, the State Alchemist complied and Jian jumped in and took a seat. Joan waited for an explanation, but one didn't come.

The bus driver just happened to glance back as Jian was climbing through the window. Startled, the bus driver swerved and almost drove off the road before correcting himself. The swerving woke up those who were asleep.

"What just happened?" Takara asked, suddenly wide-awake as he heart thumped against her chest from the scare of the swerving vehicle.

"Jian just climbed in the window and it startled the bus driver," Tess answered, chuckling.

"I don't blame him for being startled," Joan said, startled as well.

Takara gave Jian a weird look and she inquired, "Why were you climbing in the window?"

"How else was I supposed to get inside?" He bluntly answered with a question of his own.

Takara looked like she was about to say something, then decided not to and just sighed.

"Who was shouting up there?" Tess asked.

"That was Shay," Jian replied. "She just found out that Meili was an assassin. She seemed to know Meili like they've met before, but I don't know when".

Tess thought for a minute. "Didn't you mention that before Shay joined the group?"

"Yeah," Jian confirmed. "I didn't tell her because I knew that something like this would happen. But I guess I let it slip."

"Do you think they'll try to kill each other now?" Tess asked, trying not to laugh at the irony of her earlier joke.

"Maybe," Shrugging, he certainly hoped they didn't try or even succeed. He could tell them to knock it off if he had to, but he doubted how effective it would be. Shay could be pretty uncontrollable when she was angry, she had even attacked him once when he pushed her a little too far.

"Hopefully they don't hurt each other," Takara said, looking a little worried.

"Hopefully," he agreed.

"You're not going to try and stop them?" Joan asked.

"Not yet. Shay probably needs to work out some anger. She obviously has something against Meili, I just don't know what."

When the sounds of running and conflict were prevalent, everyone except Jian look up as if to see what was happening even though they could not see through the roof of the bus.

Clarissa glanced at Jian, wondering if he was going to interfere soon and Laura waited with wide eyes. But Jian didn't plan on interfering yet, Shay still needed to calm down and he didn't intend to stop her while she was still on attack mode. If he did, she might have gotten mad at him too, for not telling her about Meili in the first place.

Instead, Jian waited to see if the attacks would subdue and the fight would end, since he was able to sense their chis and was able to tell what they were doing. Maybe once they stopped, Jian would ask what Meili did that was so bad, because he was curious. The ex-assassin had tried to kill him, but he already knew that. But Shay had seemed furious with Meili in particular.

Joan waited silently for Jian to say or do something. The silence, not counting the fighting from above, was getting awkward.

Tess, able to sense the fight like Jian could, wondered how much longer it would last. She thought, "_I wonder if they will stop fighting before or after we get to Fortress Castell."_

Takara only heard the footsteps and other noises coming from the fight and wondered about how they could stay on the bus while fighting.

* * *

Shay glared at Meili, thinking about what had happened back at the palace in Xing. She hardly got this mad, but when she did, she struggled to control herself. Rushing at the ex-assassin, she slashed at her head. The furious bodyguard didn't care that Meili could avoid that wild attacks easily, just attacking made her feel a bit better.

_"I'm going to kill her! She ruined everything!"_ She screamed in her mind. She tried to ignore the fact that there had to be a reason Jian had allowed Meili to stay.

Focusing solely on defense, Meili didn't try to fight back. She didn't want to fight Shay, but Shay definitely didn't feel the same. Because the bodyguard had a right to be angry, Meili let her attack. The ex-assassin had only been part of the plan to abduct the Prince. Some other assassin could have done the job she did, they didn't even have to be as skilled in fighting as Shay, they only needed to distract her long enough for the place to succeed. Meili just happened to be one of the best assassins the Yu clan had, second only to the leader. Determination got to her second best, second-in-command. The determination to make the ones who took everything from her pay.

Eventually, as Shay calmed down, her attacks weren't just wild and uncoordinated, they became focused and more precise. If Meili had been fighting back with the aim to kill, the bodyguard would have been dead since the beginning of the fight and almost anytime in between. But now that Shay was calming down, there were less blatant openings.

Tirelessly advancing against Meili, Shay used the forward motion of the bus to her advantage by using it to propel her forward in her attempt to land a solid, kick aimed at her opponent's face, backed with a fair amount of momentum.

Meili side-stepped out of the way to dodge the attack. Like Shay, she could see ways to use the motion of the bus to her advantage, but refused to take the opportunities. Used to being on the offensive, defense felt weird to her even if she was no less skilled at it. As the fight became more serious, she had to resist the temptation to fight back with full force. The urge to kill had been a part of her for most of her life, drilled into her mind until it was almost an instinct. The longer the fight went on, the more it felt as if she was battling herself more than she was defending herself against Shay.

It seemed to be a reverse form of her training to the ex-assassin. When she first started at the age of five, she trembled at the thought of death and struggle do to force herself to kill, to ignore her instinct to love others. At that age, her face was soaked in tears more often than she'd care to admit, but she hadn't shed a sincere tear, laughed or smiled genuinely, or even scowl, for many years. Her childhood was pitiful, instead of going out to play with the friends she might have had, she murdered without remorse.

The former assassin began struggling to resist the openings she found in Shay's form. But the enraged bodyguard must have seen this as a sign that Meili was having a hard time fighting against her, and pressed on more fervently. As Shay stubbornly refused to let up her onslaught, Meili decided that the fight either had to stop, or she had to get away from it. But jumping off the bus and leaving the Prince wasn't a viable option. She had promised him, even more important than that, she had promised herself that she'd help him become the next Emperor.

Each passing second became harder for Meili to resist taking any openings to her target. As Shay's attacks became less sloppy, Meili began to think like an assassin again. She continuously had to remind herself that Shay wasn't a target or an opponent, she was an ally. If she left like she knew she should, she would look weak, and she couldn't bear to look weak again.

Taught under very strict circumstances, Meili had become the image of a killing machine. If she made one wrong move, showed one unnecessary emotion, her weakness was punished until it no longer existed. She learned to watch death, cause death, and think lightly of death. So she forced her thoughts to twist into a monster, a harbinger of death, in her effort to get what she wanted. But to get was she truly wanted, she needed to unwind twenty years of twisted knowledge.

Over the course of her training, killing became art. Every stroke stained her canvas and added to her picture. She dumped buckets of blood to create it, yet didn't realize she had been blind. But with her eyes opened, what she found she created was not a picture she liked. To paint her new masterpiece, better than the one before, she needed a clean canvas.

Even though fighting made her feel better, Shay knew she should stop. But part of her felt like she could redeem herself this way, even though that wasn't the reason she relentlessly attacked. She wasn't fighting for honor, or even for Jian, she was fighting because she was simply angry at herself for failing.

Deep down inside, she was screaming at herself to stop, but it was like she had locked that part of her in a sound proof cage and pushed it far away from herself. She wasn't listening to reason anymore. All she knew was her attacks, one after another, becoming more focused as she slipped away from her emotional side, and became the emotionless fighting machine she had trained daily to become. The sound of her blade swishing past her as it struck towards Meili. The footwork. It was a dance, a deadly one, and Shaneka knew every move. The sound of her own breathing and heartbeat was the music, and she danced around the roof of the bus.

Meili had felt weak and insignificant when she was young, but forcing herself not to attack Shay was equivalent to forcing a small child to carry a heavy load.

_"Which makes me the child once more."_

With that thought ringing through her mind, Meili let Shay push her to the edge where Jian had jumped into the bus through the still-open window. Once close enough, she quickly slipped through and shut the window behind her, leaving Shay alone on the roof.

_"Coward,"_ Shay thought as she watched Meili slip away. Immediately after the thought entered her mind, she corrected herself as she shook her head, "_No, she's not a coward. She's just smart." _

Sheathing her katana, she sat on the top of the bus in solitary. Eyes closed as she enjoyed the wind blowing against her face, Shay realized she was no longer angry when reason returned to her mind. Reviewing the fight in her mind, she realized why Jian trusted her. The look in the ex-assassin's eyes had changed. When they met at the palace, Meili's eyes had been little more than empty voids that sought to fill themselves with bloodshed. Never before did she see anyone with so little life in their eyes. Only now did Shay realize that emptiness had no been there, filled instead with purpose and drive, and a struggle to change.

As she reflected, she realized that the whole fight had been fueled by guilt. She frowned and, even though she tried to suppress the memories, the fight in Xing returned to her. Suddenly, she felt the tear on her cheek and quickly wiped it away.

_"Thank you Meili. I was able to release all of this pent up emotion. You probably know better than anyone that wild emotions can be deadly in our line of work," _she thought as she stared up at the clouds that drifted above her.

Sifting through her feelings, Shay stayed on the roof of the bus with no way inside anyway. For the moment, she decided to trust Jian's judgment while quietly building her own opinion of the ex-assassin. Though her trust was still shaky, part of her wanted to go as far as to befriend Meili. There were many things she knew Meili could teach her, and perhaps there were a few things Shay could even teach her. But if they were going to guard the Prince together, it was important they trusted each other.

* * *

Clarissa glanced over at Meili as the ex-assassin slipped inside. "Xingese people are strange," she murmured to herself.

Meili ignored Clarissa's comment, reflecting on the battle she escaped. Not the one against Shay, but the one waged against herself. No doubt Shay thought she was running in an act of cowardice, but Meili had to stop before she succumbed to her former ways. If she had lost her inner battle, the one-sided fight with Shay could have ended badly.

"So how'd it go?" Jian asked. "Did you guys work everything out?"

Meili thought about it for a minute before replying, carefully examining what had happened, "I believe so."

Though she was no stranger to lying and deception, Meili genuinely meant her words. With some time to cool down and think after releasing her frustration, Shay would no doubt come to trust Jian's judgement. The ex-assassin could say the same about the heir of the Yu clan, Xie Yu. She might deceived herself into believing she could, but his motives were selfish. It was difficult to believe he has hidden it well enough to convince the entire Yu clan, but now Meili owed Jian for opening her eyes to the truth.

They approached the bus station before Meili even had a chance to sit down for awhile. She did notice that Jian seemed a bit more lighthearted than before as he hopped to his feet.

Noticing that they were almost to Fortress Castell, Tess sat up and stretched. Sitting around for a while tended to make her a bit stiff, especially since she was used to getting plenty of exercise.

Clarissa sighed happily as they neared the bus stop. She was tired of sitting, and was getting stiff. "_How does Joan sit here this long, with those legs of hers?"_ she thought curiously as she watched Joan sit up.

Seeing everyone else do it, Takara started stretching as well. After living most of her life as a slave with people telling her what to do, she was still trying to get used to making decisions on her own without people always ordering her around.

As the bus pulled came to a stop, Clarissa stood up, ready to start moving around around again. She didn't like staying in one place for very long, not since what happened to her brother.

Laura stretched and yawned. "Ugh, that was a long bus ride," she mumbled.

Clarissa smiled, "Oh yeah, it was way too long," she agreed.

Anzhela silently agreed and looked back at Jian, still worried about him.

Shay nimbly jumped off the bus as it came to a stop, then quietly waited for Jian to join her. "_This is going to be interesting,"_ she thought.

Meili and Shay silently glanced each other, their gazes meeting just long enough to agree.

* * *

**A/N**

** I enjoyed this chapter. Getting deeper into Shay and Meili's characters was fun and made for some great wordplay. Editing was not easy though. It switched between the parties on the roof and in the bus too much, which I had to fix. . But, I still like this one. My favorite one so far, if I do say so myself. I enjoy Meili's character. She's kinda like Spock, stoic on the outside, but has some inner turmoil to come to terms with. Personally, my favorite characters are the Xingese ones, they just have more personality and interesting backgrounds. **

**Anyway, please tell me what you think if your reading this.**


	12. A Blonde Xingese Boy

Surprised at how quickly they had crossed the desert, Selene and her group arrived in Xerxes. Keith, Evan, and she guided the freed slaves to an area where they could meet with people who could help them find homes and jobs in their new, free life.

Spotting another caravan approaching from the East, Selene signed to Keith and Evan, "You want to go see the other caravan?"

The brothers signed at the same time, "Sure why not?"

Travelling with someone who knew how to sign was convenient for Keith, who had trouble keeping up with spoken conversations otherwise. The Deaf Alchemist could hear, but was limited enough that he was legally deaf. When Evan wasn't there, Keith would wear hearing aids, but didn't particularly enjoy them.

It also made communication quicker for all of them. While they all knew sign language, Selene didn't have to take time to write everything she wanted to say and Keith didn't have to struggle to understand.

They watched the caravan from the top of a tall, worn down wall. Most of them were merchants or emigrants from Xing. However, one person in particular caught Selene's attention. A teenage boy with curly blonde hair and grey eyes, he sported a typical martial arts outfit, and was travelling alone except for a grey and white dog padding along beside him. Compared to all the dark-haired people, his light hair caused him to stick out like a sore thumb.

However, Keith and Evan didn't notice him until she began following the blonde teen. They kept close to her, hoping none of the curious travelers would wander the ruins and find the freed slave. One stray comment about the freed slaves while they were in Amestris could lead to the slave trade discovering their operation.

The blonde boy explored the ruins, with his dog following and investigating different smells. Though neither Keith nor Evan understood why, Selene followed, waiting for him to get out of sight of the rest of the caravan before introducing herself. As she followed, he seemed to know that he was being followed. Once he got to a more secluded area, Selene caught up and approached him.

"I thought someone was following me," he said, turning around to look at her. "I stick out like a sore thumb in that group, don't I?"

Selene nodded, smirking. Then signed while Evan translated, "I was curious what a boy like you is doing coming from Xing."

"Because of my blonde hair? I'm actually mostly Xingese," he said, smirking at Selene's confused look. "There's some Amestrian genes in my family, and I happened to get them."

Judging by his outfit and how he carried himself, he likely would know how to fight, she observed. Selene hoped he could get him to help free slaves, but she had to make sure he could be trusted first.

"Hey, what's your name?" Evan asked, with no concern about trust.

"Oh, my name's Crispin. And my dog is Feng." He laughed. "What are your names?"

Evan spoke for them, "I'm Evan, she's Selene, and he's Keith.'

"I'm curious," Crispin said, turning toward Selene, "I can tell you're not deaf, but are you mute?"

Selene shook her head, signing as Evan translated, "I took a vow of silence."

"Care to explain?" Crispin asked.

"It's a long story," Selene signed, shaking her head.

"So why are you heading to Amestris?" Keith asked.

"I'm looking for someone," he said, a thoughtful look came to his face and he started staring off into space. After a minute of waiting for clarification, Selene started waving her hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" Crispin snapped out of his thoughts, shaking his head to clear it.

"Who are you looking for?" Selene signed.

"Oh! Right," he said, a bit embarrassed. "I'm looking for my sister. She's been missing for a couple months, and I was hoping to find her in Amestris."

"And who's your sister?" Keith said.

"Her name's Tessema," Crispin said, looking a bit sad.  
Surprised, Selene got an idea. Before either of the brothers could speak, she signed, "Let's pretend we don't know her and send him to meet the others."

"That'll be an interesting surprise," Keith signed, suppressing a chuckle at the thought of Crispin's reaction.

Keith turned to Crispin and said, "So, Crispin, we'll help you out if you agree to help us."

Crispin looked up from his musings, "Huh? What do you need help with?"

Now that they knew Tess was his sister, Selene was fairly sure he could be trusted. She signed, "We've been trying to free slaves, and I became a slave trader in Amestris to work from the inside. So far, we're only freed a small group." As she explained, she omitted the part about his sister being one of those freed slaves.

Crispin nodded. "Sure, I'll help. Just tell me what to do."

Selene smiled, this was going to work like a charm. "I want you to meet with a group of others that have been helping us. I'll text them and set up a time and place you can meet up with them," she instructed.

"Sounds good," Crispin agreed.

* * *

As the bus waited for them to get off at Fortress Castell, Joan stood up and stretched. She made a mental note to polish her automail soon when she found they felt a little stiffer than she preferred.

The Gemstone Alchemist, along with most of the others, was curious as to what had happened on the roof of the bus. But nobody was eager to ask either Meili or Shay about it and silently hoped Jian would inquire. Though Jian wanted to know where the two bodyguards had met before, he didn't think it wasn't the best time to ask.

Though Meili didn't say anything to Shay, she looked in the bodyguard's direction. While it could mean a lot of things, She intended to convey that she could be trusted.

Shay noticed the glance, but chose not to respond. She couldn't meet the ex-assassin's gaze, not yet. She wasn't ashamed of what she did on the roof of the bus, she just wasn't ready for friendliness right now. Instead, she glanced at Jian to see how he was holding up.

The Prince's thoughts had wandered to what happened with Cai, and he refused to believe she was gone. When he first ran into the group, he and Meili were headed back to Xing. He'd simply tagged along for some free food and entertainment, but he couldn't go back without Cai. He wouldn't be able to face his clan, or her father. If he couldn't go back without her, he'd find a way to go back with her.

It was apparent his mood had shifted from glumness, to determination. Silently, he had to thank Anzhela for telling him to take his own advice and focus on the course ahead.

Tess climbed off the bus, with Takara close behind.

"Maybe we should find a hotel, it's getting dark," Tess suggested, stifling a yawn.

"Yeah, let's find a hotel," Joan agreed.

They found the nearest one and decided that it would work. Joan set them up with a couple rooms with multiple beds. Most everyone flopped onto the beds the claimed and fell asleep almost immediately, the events of the day leaving them utterly exhausted.

When everyone else had gone to bed, Meili went up to the roof, unable to sleep yet. She felt that she had to be on the lookout, alert enough to sense the chi of any enemies that could be lurking in the shadows.

Darkness had always been her ally, but now it may very well become her enemy. She had avoided becoming close to anyone for such a long time, not since she lost her father and brother. Instead, she stuck to the shadows like she had been trained to do. She wanted to feel guilty for the deaths she caused and the pain she'd brought to others, but she didn't. Though it didn't appear so, all she had ever felt for twenty one years was pain, agony, misery, and hatred most of all.

Sighing, she whispered to herself, "Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light?"

Shay, unable to sleep, sat in the windowsill and swung her legs out. She glanced back at Jian, who slept sprawled out on the bed ungracefully and taking up all the room on it. Looking back out and staring at the moon, Shay whispered as if she had the guts to tell him, "Prince, if only you'd realize your destiny isn't as immutable as you've always believed."

While everyone in her room was asleep, Joan's phone woke her up when it received a text from Selene. Now awake, she decided to check it. The text from Selene alerted her that someone was being sent over to help them free the slaves.

It read, "_I found someone who may be able to help us free more slaves. I'm sending him over soon."_

Texting back, Joan replied, "_We're going to Central in the morning."_

"_I'll send him to Central and you can meet up with him at the train station," _Selene texted back.

"_K," _Joan texted, too tired to think of a better response. After pressing send, she dropped her face into her pillow, quickly falling asleep again.

Clarissa dreamed she was at a birthday party, back at her home before she lost her brother. As she looked around, she realized it was his birthday. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, but the party eventually ended, despite her wishes against it.

Everyone else was cleaning up and saying goodbye while she remained sitting at the table, staring at a lighter. Against her better judgment, yet unable to resist, she picked it up and began playing with it. Mesmerized by the flame it created, she reached out to hold it in her hand. Instead of being burned, the fire began dancing on her fingers, licking her skin affectionately as it grew larger.

Clarissa's heart pounded happily, but just when she believed the growing fire was under control, it grew larger and larger. She began to panic when it crawled up her arm and engulfed her entire body and began to blaze around the entire scene. She watched as everyone ran away, everyone except her brother. He reached his hand out to her, but before she could take it, his form blackened and blew away like ash in the wind.

Before anything else happened, Clarissa shot up. She was breathing hard, shaken by the dream. Looking around and seeing Laura and Joan fast asleep in the beds they claimed, she pulled her knees close to her chest to comfort herself.

* * *

At breakfast, Joan told the others about the texts she got from Selene.

"Do you even know who this person is?" Jian asked around a mouthful of food.

"No, I was too tired to ask. But if Selene trusts him, he could be a big help," Joan replied.

"I'm not complaining," Jian said, his words muffled by the food he was eating. Just like before, he'd gotten a pile of food that appeared impossible for anyone could eat. It was a wonder that anyone else had gotten anything for their breakfast.

We'll be able to sense if he's a homunculus before he reaches us," Tess piped up. Joan may not have said that specifically, but Tess knew that's what they were all worried about. She trusted Selene's judgment, and if she trusted him, Tess was pretty certain they would be able to trust him as well.

Shuddering at the thought, Takara said, "I sure hope he's not a homunculus. Especially after Cai…" She trailed off, glancing at Jian. Noticing he started playing with his food rather than eating after she spoke, she hastily apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"It's fine." Jian interrupted. Then he glanced at Anzhela as he added, "After all, I just have to focus on the course ahead."

Realizing that she had given him that advice, the Drachman girl beamed.

"But I refuse to believe Cai is gone. She followed a cat across the desert, there's no way this could keep her away from me. She's annoyingly persistent like that," The Prince continued, "So I'm going to stick around and get her back."

Tess smirked, "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Crispin's caravan reached Youswell by morning, and he caught the first train he could find that would take him to Central. Staring out the window and to the passing landscape, his thoughts wandered to the few messages he had gotten from Tess since she had disappeared. Thankfully, he knew that she was alive when she instructed him to warn the royal heirs about the assassins threatening them.

Once the trained arrived in Central, he felt well fed and rested. After waiting at the train station for about ten minutes, he thought to check the time. It was only noon, so he had a few hours before he was supposed to meet the group.

Turning to the dog, he asked, "What do you think, boy? Wanna go explore for a bit?" Feng responded by standing up and wagging his tail enthusiastically.

"Ok, then. Let's go," Crispin said, smiling.

They left the station to meander around the area for a while. As he did, Crispin began to wonder what the group was like, how he would know they were the people he was looking for, and if they really could help him find his sister.


	13. Reunited

The group planned to meet with the person Selene had told them about at Central City's train station at around three o'clock. They still had plenty of time, so they didn't rush themselves.

Jian had thought about riding on top of the train too, just to see what it was like, but decided against it. There was food inside the train, not on top, and the train ride would last longer than the bus ride. So he decided inside was more preferable.

As they spent their time on the train, Jian remembered he wanted to ask Shay and Meili about how they knew each other. So he asked, "Shay, on the bus, you sounded as if you knew Meili from somewhere. Care to elaborate for me?"

Expecting to have this conversation eventually, Shay sighed, "She was there at the palace, when the assassin abducted you. She was the reason I wasn't there to help you," she quietly informed him.

Jian nodded in understanding. He saw that Shaneka wasn't comfortable and didn't want to talk about it anymore now, so he stopped prying. He had already known Meili had played a part in the abduction, but now he knew she had distracted Shay to keep the bodyguard away because she could ruin their entire plan.

The rest of the train ride was fairly quiet, save for their less-than-interesting conversations. But, eventually, the train came to a stop in Central and the group filed off.

A tall and largely built man with the typical Amestrian blonde and blue eyed look, who went by Sam Armstrong to anyone who knew him, cut through the train station as he headed to his apartment. It was the quickest way he could find so far, so that's the path he chose to take.

By happenstance, he spotted a familiar face amongst the crowd as they unloaded from the train. She was a family friend, and he gladly waved to her. He approached her when she failed to notice him while she was distracted by her friends.

Standing behind the oblivious teen, he wrapped his arms around in his signature Armstrong manner, exclaiming, "Joan, it's wonderful to see you again!"

Joan gasped in surprise, "Sam! You're crushing me!'

As she struggled for air, Sam finally let her go. As she greedily sucked in the precious oxygen she needed, it was apparent Sam was at least a foot taller than Joan.

"What are you doing here Sam?"

Tess and Takara watched Joan get squished in amusement. And, wondering if this was the person they Selene wanted them to meet, Takara asked before Sam could answer Joan, "Do you know a girl named Selene?"

Sam tilted his head. "Not that I remember, no. Sorry, should I? I was merely cutting across the station to get home."

"_I guess he's not the one Selene sent, then,"_ Tess thought.

"So, Joan, who's this?" Clarissa asked.

Sam smiled, and introduced himself, "I am Samuel Armstrong, but you can call me Sam! Now, who are you?"

Laura gave Sam a questioning look, perplexed by his eccentric personality. Meanwhile, Clarissa could help but smile. She had no words to describe Sam, but he was amusing.

"I guess you could call him a friend of mine. Our families have known each other for years," Joan explained.

Joan waited for everyone to introduce themselves before asking Sam, with the intent to catch up on current events, "Hey, Sam, did you ever join the military like you thought about doing?"

Sam flinched. "Yeah about that, I decided not to. My cousin is there," he said, shuddering at the terrible memory.

Laura held back a laugh. "_That guy is so big and he's afraid of his cousin. That's odd,"_ she thought.

The person he called his cousin, Roslyn Armstrong, wasn't actually his cousin. The two of them were from different lines of the famous Armstrong family. Sam came from the line of Alex Louis Armstrong, while Roslyn came from Olivier Mira Armstrong's line.

They others may not know how scary Roslyn was, but both same and Joan knew all too well, who both shuddered. She didn't hesitate to use the sword that had been passed down her family for generations.

As they talked, Clarissa attempted to suppress her growing impatience. By no means was I obvious, but she struggled to tap her foot.

As she watched the others talking to Sam, Tess sensed a chi that caught her by surprise. Her face lit up, and she started running toward the chi, Ying right behind her.

"Tess! Where are you going?" Takara shouted after her.

But Tess didn't answer because she was too excited by who she was sensing.

Jian and Meili weren't sure who Tess was sensing; it was hard to tell which one she had picked out from the crowds in Central. Jian decided to follow, who in turn was followed by his two bodyguards. Joan didn't want to lose them and went running after them too; and soon everyone was running after Tess.

"Tess!" Joan shouted, "Where are you going?" She doubted Tess would answer, though, because she seemed so focused on wherever she was going.

On the other side of the train station, Crispin had just returned from exploring Central. He was about to start looking around to see if he could find the group Selene wanted him to meet when he sensed a familiar chi.

"No way!" he gasped, hardly able to believe it. Turning to Feng with an inhumanly wide grin, he exclaimed, "I can't believe we found her already!"

He started running toward the chi with Feng following, sensing it and a few others heading toward him. And Tess ran across the train station with a huge grin on her face. Pretty soon she saw him: her younger brother.

"Crispin!" she shouted as she ran, not caring if anyone gave her weird looks. She was too happy to see him to care what anyone else thought.

"Tess!" he shouted back, running toward her.

As they reached each other, they embraced each other but both of them ending up on the ground in a laughing fit. After a minute, their laughter subsided enough that they could talk again.

"I'm so glad I found you! I've been so worried!" Crispin said happily.

"What are you doing here?" Tess asked. "I thought you would have gone home."

"I came looking for you!" he responded.

The others reached them and Takara asked, "Hey, Tess, who is this?"

Tess and Crispin sat up and looked at the others, still smiling. "This is my younger brother, Crispin," Tess informed them, a huge grin on her face.

Feng barked, wagging his tail. "And this is my dog, Feng," Crispin added.

"So this is the brother you texted to warn the other heirs?" Jian asked curiously.

"Yeah, this is him," Tess confirmed.

"Is he the person Selene sent to help us?" Joan asked. If he was, then it was safe to assume he could be trusted.

"Wait, Selene?" Crispin cocked his head. "She didn't tell me she knew you," he said, looking at Tess.

"Really?" Tess was surprised. "We've helped each other out a lot while I've been in Amestris."

"Yeah, she didn't say anything," he corrected himself, "I mean sign anything about you. She had two guys translating for me."

"So Keith and Evan are still with her," Joan mused aloud. "And Selene sent you to help us? Maybe she decided it would be funny to send you straight to your sister without telling you."

"I guess so," Crispin agreed, then started grinning again.

Looking at Crispin, Jian thought he looked familiar. Blonde hair in Xing wasn't very common, except in tourists. Even if the Prince did know him, it wasn't as if he bothered to remember the boy's name. He was always busy with other stuff, such as sneaking out of the palace to explore the city and snatch food from the palace kitchen.

Eventually, Jian had to asked, "Hey, haven't I seen you hanging around the Yao palace before?"

"Most likely," Crispin replied. "Up until about a week or two ago I was still training there."

"What? You remember him but you don't remember me?" Tess exclaimed, pretending she was offended. But she couldn't keep a straight face for very long and started laughing.

"Blonde hair is easier to notice and esier to remember," Jian defended his memory. Smirking, he added, "Now you know how I felt when you were excited to Chun and not me." Pausing and looking back and forth Jian asked, "Speaking of Chun, where did she go?"

"She told me she had stuff to do way back when we got off the bus. You didn't notice until now?" Tess explained, raising an eyebrow and smirking as Jian's lack of attention.

"It's not like she was around very long, or very often." Jian folded his arms, continuing to defend himself.

Takara couldn't help laughing at their antics. And it seemed as if the others felt the same way, most of them smirking or stifling laughter; except Meili, of couse. She had heard a lot about Crispin from Tess and she was glad that she finally got to meet him.

Joan said to Crispin, "It's nice to meet you Crispin. I'm Joan. We could use all the help we can get freeing slaves. And if you're as good as your sister is, then I know you'll be a big help."

Laura smiled at Crispin and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Laura, it's nice to meet you Crispin."

"It's nice to meet you guys," Crispin said, bowing in a traditional Xingese manner. The only ones to return the bow were Meili and Shay.

"You know," Takara said, "Tess has told me all about you."

Crispin looked at Tess nervously. "What did she tell you?"

"Don't worry, it was good things," Takara smiled.

Joan couldn't quite understand it, so she had to ask, "So, if you're Xingese, why do you have blonde hair?" She wasn't sure if it was rude to ask that in their culture, but she was curious.

"I get asked that a lot," Crispin smirked. "It came from our great-grandfather, Alphonse Elric."

"Our dad is blonde, too," Tess added. "Even though we are mostly Xingese, they have blonde hair."

"Alphonse Elric? My great-grandfather is Edward Elric!" Joan exclaimed, surprised. "Does that mean we're distantly related?"

"Edward Elric…that name is familiar," Jian said, trying to remember where he'd heard that name. He thought for a minute then suddenly remembered. He snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "That's right! The man who fed the Emperor a shoe!" Not a lot of people knew the details to that story, they just knew that Edward Elric fed Emperor Ling Yao, who was still a prince at the time, his left shoe.

Joan stared for a moment, having never heard that story. She had no idea what Jian was talking about.

Jian saw the stare and said, "I can't be the only one who has heard that story! Shay and Meili must know." He gestured to where the two stood and Meili gave a small nod. She had heard the story as well. Shay had to try not to laugh when he mentioned the story of the man who fed the Emperor a shoe. It made her laugh every time she heard it.

Tess and Crispin laughed. "We've heard that story, too," Tess said.

"So it's a Xingese story." Jian decided.

"Part of what makes it so funny is that Edward Elric is our great-great-uncle," Crispin added, smiling.

Takara had a look of mixed disbelief, confusion, and disgust. "He ate a shoe? Gross!"

"It was a leather shoe, so it was edible," Meili clarified. "Most people assume that they were in a desperate situation. It's the most logical explanation."

Jian always thought it was funny that the emperor had been fed a shoe. But had to wonder what kind of situation they had to be in to be forced to eat a shoe. It was probably a mystery that was going to be forever left unsolved.

Confused, Sam cocked his head from where he stood in the background.

"Yeah, our great-grandpa didn't know what happened, either. It happened when he got separated from his brother," Tess said.

Crispin was thoughtful. "If Edward is your great-grandfather and Alphonse is our great-grandfather...that would make us..." he tried to figure it out in his head. "I think that makes us third cousins."

Clarissa laughed, then confirmed, "Yup."

Laura smiled and giggled. "Well, that's nice, Mine and Clarissa's ancestor was Fuhrer Roy Mustang," she said with a shrug, like it didn't really matter that much.

"You're bragging, aren't you?" Joan asked Laura. Saying something all calm like that seemed like a form of bragging to her.

"While being the great-grandson of Emperor Ling Yao, 8th prince of Xing, Yao clan's heir to the throne isn't brag worthy," Jian laughed to himself.

Laura looked confused. "I was bragging?"

"Some people would call that bragging," Crispin said to Laura.

"It's brag worthy, but I don't think she meant it that way," Clarissa said in defense of her sister.

Takara was still stuck on the fact that they had eaten a shoe and was oblivious to the new conversation. The thought appalled her and she was having a hard time not making faces about it.

"Yeah, being an heir to the throne is _so_ not brag worthy," Tess said sarcastically to Jian, smirking.

Laura shrugged uncertainly. "Sorry, I didn't realize that," she apologized, biting her lip afterwards. She picked up the habit of biting her lip when she was nervous from her mom. Laura closed her eyes, trying not to think about her.

"You're ok," Clarissa said to Laura with a smile.

"It's ok," Crispin reassured Laura. "It's kind of our fault for talking about our ancestors so much. I bet you felt a little left out, and probably some of the others, too."

Laura smiled a little. "Okay that's good, I'll try to be more careful about how I say things now," she said with a little laugh.

"You know, I haven't learned everyone's names yet," Crispin said suddenly.

Tess laughed. "You got distracted, as usual."

Takara, Sam, Laura, Clarissa, and Anzhela proceeded to introduce themselves while Meili and Shay remained silently next to Jian.

"And I'm the 8th Prince of Xing, Jian Yao," he introduced himself, giving a bow.

"And since they don't seem to want to introduce themselves, this is Shaneka, Jian's bodyguard, and Meili. She's the stoic bodyguard." Tess introduced.

"I can introduce myself," Meili assured them. "My name is Meili Yu." She couldn't remember the last time she introduced herself with her real name rather than an alias.

"Yao clan and Yu clan? Interesting. We're from the Chang clan," Crispin said.

Sam smiled at the friends. Roslyn had always said he would never get any friends because he was such a pansy and would never be good at anything. But that didn't stop him from trying to be good at stuff that she wasn't, like making friends for example. She could never get a friend because how scary she was, and she'll never get a husband either.

Anzhela watched with a smile, glad to avoid attention. She turned her gaze over to Jian, who looked pretty happy considering what he went through. Seeing him happy again lifted her own spirits. She then turned back to who was talking and listened silently.

"Nice to meet you all," Crispin said, smiling. "Anzhela, I'm guessing you're not from Amestris because you have an accent."

Anzhela nodded. "Yes, It's true I'm not from here. I'm from Drachma," she said, smiling a little.

"So now that everyone is all introduced," Joan started, "I have to do something with Clarissa. You guys just wait here and we'll be back. Come on, Clarissa."

Everyone else paused to watch Joan and Clarissa walk away.

"What are they doing?" Jian wondered aloud.

"So what do we do while Joan and Clarissa are gone?" Takara asked.

"I guess we just sit here and chat," Tess smiled. Seeing Crispin had made her happier than she had been in quite a while. With getting kidnapped, almost killed, and enslaved, she had missed her family a lot.

Of course, 'Chatting' wasn't really Meili's thing. So she just sat silently and listened to everyone talk. Jian had disappeared for a minute then come back with a handful of those sweet things he'd decided he liked so much, still oblivious as to what they were.

It was easy for the ex-assassin to guess the Prince had stolen them.

* * *

Joan led Clarissa straight to Central headquarters and showed the guards her state alchemist watch, telling them that Clarissa was with her. Joan wandered the building, having no idea where anything was. Like last time, she simply wandered blindly until she found the President's office.

It was time for Joan to live up to her promise and see what she could do about helping Clarissa become a state alchemist. She'd probably even recommend a codename, since she had a couple ideas.

* * *

**A/N**

**This is just boring filler stuff. I'm sorry lots of characters randomly get introduced then suddenly disappear. Sam doesn't really anything interesting that I can remember, but he wasn't my character to rp. The person who rped Chun didn't contribute often, so I kinda cut her out a little earlier than the rper did, just so it made more sense. If I had gotten permission to rp Chun, I could have had some fun with her. But Chun is more important in Jian's background story than in this anyway. I intend to write that background story one day, I really do. But it spans over 40 years... shifting focus characters as time goes on.**


	14. A Chi-Blocking Session

Joan kept exploring Central headquarters until she found the president's office, just like she had last time. She knocked on the door and announced that it was her, using her codename, Gemstone. She let herself in when she heard the President allow her to.

"Sir," she began, "I'd like to recommend a friend of mine to become a state alchemist."

"Any qualifying abilities?" he asked.

"She knows a some flame alchemy. She'd like to research more to become better at it. If she managed to master it, she could be an excellent asset as a state alchemist. She's already a brilliant alchemist." Joan avoided mentioning that Clarissa didn't need a transmutation circle to perform alchemy; because that was something personal that Joan didn't feel comfortable with just throw around. If Clarissa wanted the president to know, she'd tell him herself.

"So you know a little?" he mused, asking Clarissa. "I thought the secret had been destroyed." He wasn't asking to know how she knew it, because it was obvious he really didn't care how she came to have the knowledge, but was only interested in the fact that she did, in fact, know flame alchemy.

"So will you accept the request for state alchemist membership? I can even recommend a codename." Joan said.

"And that would be?" he inquired.

Joan stayed silent, glancing at Clarissa and waiting for her to say it.

Clarissa smiled a little upon realizing the Gemstone Alchemist wanted her to say it. When Joan had told her the name, she had immediately fallen in love with it. "The Inferno Alchemist," she told the president, with a touch of pride mingling in her voice.

The president paused to take it in. Instead of saying anything, he pulled out a key and reached into a drawer and placed a silver pocket watch onto the table. Then said, "Welcome to the state alchemist program, Inferno." He turned to his computer and entered the information in. "We'll keep in touch and you can contact any of the other state alchemists at any time by using a secret line that Gemstone can give you."

Clarissa's smile widened as she grabbed the watch. "Thank you Sir," she said calmly, trying to retain her glee. She could hardly believe she was actually a state alchemist.

* * *

"I'm curious, Jian," Tess suddenly said. "How do you chi-block?" She was hoping either she or Crispin would be able to understand and learn how to chi-block. Crispin was the one who was most likely to understand if knowledge of human anatomy was needed. He wanted to become a doctor and had studied anatomy.

Blinking in surprise, Jian found the question somewhat random. He had never taught his technique to anyone before, except once. But that one lesson lasted around three minutes before he ran off. Watching the assassin try to chi-block each other was entertaining, definitely, but his aim hadn't been to teach them in the first place.

Meili remembered the experience as well. The Prince showed the group of assassins, her included, a single chi-blocking move they each tried to imitate. The ex-assassin had tried it, but quickly realized they were not being given enough information. But this time, Jian was actually going to teach rather than provide himself with entertainment.

"Well, you aim for points where the flow of chi will affect parts of the body like you want it to. Knowing where the points are is very important; a diverse knowledge of the human anatomy is required for it to turn out right." He wasn't really sure how to explain it, but it sounded good so far. "From what I know of alkahestry, it's kind of like that, but limited to the body of an opponent instead of the dragon's pulse that flows through the earth. If you chi-block someone right, you can actually prevent them from using alkahestry. I'm not sure about alchemy, I'm pretty sure that works differently and I've never had a chance to try it out." He laughed at the memory of Master Guan becoming quite angry when he found out he could use his alkahestry.

Crispin nodded, "I know quite a bit about anatomy."

"I understand the concept, I just don't know how to do it and where the points are," Tess admitted.

Everyone else sat silently, listening but unable to understand what they were talking about.

Jian thought about how to explain more without being too confusing. "They're kind of like pressure points, but for the flow of chi instead." Maybe an example was needed. "For example, if I hit here, where the flow of chi is," he punched Tess in the arm and it went limp. "It becomes paralyzed temporarily. Does that make sense?"

"I think I get it, but I kind of want to practice," Crispin said.

"Great, now I can't use my arm," Tess shook her head, smirking.

Takara couldn't help laughing at how matter-of-factly Jian and Crispin were talking about paralyzing people.

"Well, that can be fixed." Jian hit her arm again in the same spot. Then he continued to explain, "Another important thing to remember is pressure. If you don't use enough, the chi-blocking won't be effective. If you use too much, you may permanently paralyze them." Almost as an afterthought, Jian added, "As for practicing...You can practice on Meili."

She glared at the Prince threateningly and evenly warned, "Don't touch me."

Jian tensed and hopped farther away from the ex-assassin, aware he was likely asking for too much from her too soon. "Okay... you can practice on Shay instead," he decided. Shay may not enjoy it, but she'd at least tolerate it if Jian asked her to.

The bodyguard sighed upon being volunteered as the practice dummy. Part of her had wanted to join them as they learned to chi-block, because it had always interested her as she watched Jian experiment and improve his skill, but she always contented herself with simply watching.

They both recalled one of the first times he chi-blocked any of his teachers. She had asked what he had learned in their session today. They had been talking about anatomy and he decided it would be a good idea to show her. He ended up running from the floppy-armed teacher while calling for Shay's help. It was fun to look back and laugh now that the event has passed.

"Ow," Tess said, rubbing her arm where he hit her. At least she could move her arm now. Jian had not hit her lightly, which may involve what he was talking about when he mentioned pressure

Crispin had been watching carefully where Jian hit Tess's arm. He didn't feel comfortable practicing on Shay, so he decided to try it on Tess instead. After a minute of thought, he hit her other arm.

"You're practicing on me, too?" Tess asked almost accusingly, but in a playful, sibling-like manner. She moved her arm experimentally, still able to move it.

"What? You're my sister, she's his bodyguard," he said defensively, shrugging his shoulders as he did so.

"Oh, fine," Tess sighed. "But I don't think you did it right, I can still move my arm."

"Yeah, I noticed," Crispin said, turning to Jian. "What did I do wrong?"

"Eh? What?" Jian turned to face them. "Sorry, I wasn't watching. Can you do it again?"

Tess made a face and rolled her eyes, waiting for the punch. Crispin hit her arm again, in the same spot as last time, getting the same result. When she noticed Crispin didn't hit with as much force as Jian did, Tess began to believe that was what Crispin was doing wrong. Crispin made a confused face and turned back to Jian.

Jian watched closely but told him to hit her again, fighting to keep a grin or smirk from spreading across his face.

The ever-observant ex-assassin soon realized what Crispin's mistake was, and that the Prince knew it as well. But, staying true to his nature, Jian wanted to have some fun with it by having Crispin hit Tess again and again before revealing the mistakes.

Crispin complied, hitting Tess's arm again. Still not paralyzed, Tess's arm was more than likely going to become sore and possibly bruised as well. Neither sibling realized they were being messed with yet.

Jian stifled a laugh, once he was satisfied that Crispin hadn't noticed, he put on a very thoughtful face and instructed, "One more time."

Tess was likely starting to figure it out, but the Prince planned on doing this as long as he could get away with it. And, once again, Crispin punched Tess's arm again, still failing to chi-block his sister and clueless as ever.

Tess gave Jian a weird look, as she shook her head and sighed. She rolled her eyes and then suggested, "Try doing it harder."

"Ok," Crispin said. He hit her again, harder but still not hard enough.

Finally caught, Jian burst out laughing in such a way that he fell backwards in his chair. After a loud, "Oomph," he continued chuckling as Shay rushed to his side to make she he was alright. Meili, on the other hand, merely rolled her eyes.

Jian finally calmed down enough to pick himself up and brush the dirt off his clothes. "Tess is right. It should be much harder than that. Maybe you need an idea how hard it should be." With that said, Jian punched him in the arm, paralyzing his arm, then punching it again to un-paralyze it, grinning in amusement.

Crispin rubbed his arm. He wasn't sure why Jian was laughing so much until Tess told him that Jian had been messing with them.

"He knew almost the whole time that you needed to hit harder," she explained, rolling her eyes again.

"Oh," Crispin rubbed his head, embarrassed at how clueless he was. He hit Tess's arm again, a lot harder than he had been. Feeling how hard Jian had punched helped a bit.

"Ow!" Tess tried moving her arm with limited success. "That was better."

"I did it!" Crispin threw his arms into the air and excitedly hopped around in circles.

The others watched, smile, laughing, or chuckling, clearly amused with the chi-blocking lessons the siblings were receiving.

"Can you un-paralyze my arm now?" Tess asked, smirking at Crispin's cheering.

Jian almost burst out laughing again. "Un-paralyzing is a more confusing. Even though it works basically the same way," Jian informed. "It can also be more dangerous if you aren't careful, so I'll do it until you've gotten better at chi-blocking."

As everyone else laughed, Jian glanced at the stoic Meili. Taking in her still unimpressed expression, he made a silent promise to himself that he'd get her to show more emotion or say what's on her mind. Because, besides the occasional 'don't touch me' glare, she showed as much expression as wood.

"Thanks," Tess said to Jian. Then she added as a mischievous grin crawled across her features, "Let's see if we can calm him down." As Crispin jumped closer, Tess's arm shot out and she punched his arm while he was in midair, paralyzing it on the first try and knocking him down at the same time. Crispin fell to the ground, shocked.

"I can't move my arm now!" he complained. Trying to use his paralyzed arm to get up, he fell over again and groaned.

Tess couldn't help laughing. "Payback," she grinned.

Takara was laughing so hard that she was curled up on the ground, barely able to breathe in between her spurts of laughter. Anzhela giggled at what was happening while Laura was laughing her head off. Sam simply smiled at them, he liked it when others were having a good time.

"Now that he's paying attention, you can tell us how un-paralyzing is different than paralyzing," Tess said, smirking.

Jian clapped as he laughed to congratulate Tess. "You have to hit harder and more precisely. It needs to be more accurate and the goal is to clear the path of chi rather than block it."

Tess helped Crispin up, and then punched his arm again, harder, to un-paralyze it.

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm, pouting for effect.

"I got you back," Tess said smugly, chuckling. Glancing at Jian, she was relieved that he was back to normal after being so depressed and moody. Crispin had no idea what had been happening, so Tess may have to fill him in later.

"What other pressure points can be used for chi-blocking?" Crispin asked.

"They're not actually pressure points, but they're similar," Jian clarified. "Anyway, you just block the flow of chi where you it will affect other parts of the body. It's similar to when you fold a hose to block the flow." The last part made him think of something, so he added, "Also, you don't want to hit too hard. Chi still has to flow, but the goal is to block it enough so they're paralyzed. But if you hit too hard, you could cause permanent damage."

He felt a little guilty about how he figured that last part out. That bodyguard had to find another form of work because he could no longer walk the same after that particular experiment. The only way the former guard could get rid of his limp was by amputation the limb and replacing it with automail. The guard wasn't so keen on that option.

Hearing that and Jian's comment made Tess a bit nervous. "If you use me to practice again, start soft. I'd rather have it not work than get permanent damage."

Crispin nodded thoughtfully. He wanted to learn a few more points so he could practice some more. "So where would you hit to paralyze someone's leg?"

"That depends on your preferences. I found that somewhere on the thigh works for a quick chi-blocking," Jian said, pointing to his own to show them.

He didn't mention that how hard you have to hit also depends on the age, size, and weight. You don't want to hit a small child too hard, and a larger person requires more pressure. But he was sure they could use logic to figure that out. If not, he could tell them eventually.

"Would you hit the leg harder than the arm?" Crispin asked, wanting to use the right amount of pressure so he wouldn't do any damage. Tess was glad that he had asked before trying it out on her.

Jian thought for a second. "A little bit. Not too much," he determined. He didn't really have to think about the amount of pressure he needed anymore. It was second nature to him at this point. Even though he created the technique, he was still developing it in new ways.

Crispin hit Tess's thigh, careful not to put too much pressure into it. Tess flinched, but her leg wasn't paralyzed.

"Was that the right spot?" Crispin asked, wondering whether his problem was his accuracy or pressure.

Jian decided not to tell him, but suddenly shot forward and hit Crispin's leg, effectively chi-blocking it. The Prince knew what would happen, but never got tired of watching people fall down because of the sudden uselessness of one of their legs.

Crispin flopped to the ground, arms flailing to catch himself. Tess and Takara both burst out laughing.

Calming down after a bit, Tess said, "You're falling over again?"

"Uh, yeah," Crispin retorted, rolling his eyes and sitting up.

"About that hard should work," Jian smirked. He decided to leave Crispin like that for a few minutes, at least. Jian sat back down and leaned back in his chair. "It's a good thing you guys know how to fight, martial arts or not. Martial arts is an important part of chi-blocking." He informed.

Tess crouched down next to Crispin, grinning. "Having fun falling over?"

"Sure," he said sarcastically, and then got a mischievous grin. Before she could react, Crispin hit Tess's leg again, using about the same amount of pressure Jian had used on his leg. Her leg suddenly limp, Tess toppled over, stretching out her arms to catch herself.

"Looks like it's my turn to fall over," Tess said, laughing and sitting up.

Takara snickered, trying not to burst into laughter again. Jian liked how they were taking turns falling over. It looked like they were having fun chi-blocking each other.

"Hey, why don't you try chi-blocking me?" Jian suggested, eager to test out a theory he had been developing. If his theory was correct, they were in for a surprise.

"It might help if we could stand," Tess said with a smirk.

"Yeah," Crispin nodded. "Unless you want to come down here so we can reach you."

Jian crouched down and quickly hit their legs to un-paralyze them. "Better?" he asked. He made his jabs and punches much quicker because he was much more experienced. He also liked to do more than one to do it.

"Much," they both said. Nodding at each other, they punched Jian's arms in unison, trying to paralyze them.

Jian could tell they both did it right, and if it had been anyone else, they would have two paralyzed arms. But, through lots of training with various teachers, Jian had learned to control his flow of chi in such a way that he couldn't be chi-blocked. He'd tested it on himself, since nobody else could chi-block him. Still retaining control over his arms, he turned against them and chi-blocked them instead.

"Oh! So it still works even though I wasn't trying to chi-block myself," he exclaimed. He wasn't completely sure if it would work, but hadn't seen any reason why it wouldn't. If he hadn't been confident it would work, he wouldn't have taken the chance.

"Ah! Not again!" Tess complained, her arm flopping by her side.

"How did you do that?" Crispin asked, amazed.

Takara's jaw dropped, surprised by what had happened. Anzhela was sitting on the floor watching. She wasn't sitting on a chair because she knew she would fall off laughing her head off. She watched with a big smile. Sam watched the scene with a curious look, then he smiled as he walked away from the group of friends, wanting to find Joan and Clarissa to see what they were up to.

"It's a more advanced move," Jian grinned. "It took me lots of hours with paralyzed legs," he smirked. He would save that particular aspect of chi-blocking until after they got better at chi-blocking if they wanted to go beyond the basics, of course.

After Unchi-blocking Tess and Crispin, he found a seat next to Anzhela and leaned back, Jian decided he was done teaching for the day. They could continue practicing if they wanted, but everyone else was beginning to wonder what was taking Joan and Clarissa so long.

Anzhela smiled at him. "You know, that was pretty funny!" she said with a quiet little laugh.

"This whole thing was funny!" Jian replied to Anzhela. "Hey, can we get something to eat? I'm starving!" He wasn't sure how long it had been since they last ate, but he didn't care. He was hungry. And Joan didn't like him stealing or having to pay for him, so he gave up trying to please her with either option and just did whatever was convenient at the time.

Laura couldn't help but wonder what Joan and Clarissa were doing. She closed her eyes and she sat in her seat and thought about it and sighed.

"Ugh, this is boring!" She groaned as she was glaring at the floor. She wasn't a patient person, and she was still frustrated that Clarissa didn't tell her she could use flame alchemy. It was as if her own sister didn't trust her enough, let alone her supposed friends. Laura decided to get up and talk a walk around the area for a little while to clear her thoughts.

Takara glanced over as Laura got up and left, wondering where she was going but not curious enough to ask.

Despite her efforts to derail her current train of thought, Laura just couldn't get over the face that Clarissa seem to trust Joan more than her. Even though she knew she should feel so frustrated and angry, it just gnawed at her nerves.

When she found herself standing back where the others were, she seated herself separate from them. She had silently hoped one of them would notice she had left, but it didn't look like anyone had. It looked like everyone was having fun talking and laughing, but Laura just wasn't in the mood for it.

She brushed her hair out of her face as she mumbled, "I really hate this."

"Hate what?" A voice asked, surprising Laura and making her jump. She turned to the speaker and found it to be Meili, staring at her without expression. Of all the people to try and console the brooding girl, the ex-assassin was the last person anyone would have expected.

"Nothing you should concern yourself with," She replied harshly and faced away from Meili once again, glancing at her automail sadly. She was just tired of having a broken family.

"Then do not speak." Meili said, her tone was corrosive and bit at Laura's fragile mask of indifference. "Now I want to know what you hate. Do you hate the world, or your situation in it? Perhaps you're merely jealous that your sister wandered off with Joan. Or maybe you simply hate yourself."

"How did you…?" Laura began, slowly looking back as the ex-assassin.

"You're as easy to read as an open book." Meili answered cryptically, adjusting the straps that tied her hidden blade to her wrist.

Beginning to dislike Meili, Laura turned back and stared at her automail again. She didn't want to be read, and she did not want this absurd form of what may or may not be an attempt to comfort her. But despite how little she wanted it, she found herself pouring her frustrations out onto the ex-assassin.

* * *

Tess moved her arm around, and then started stretching so she wouldn't be too sore later. Almost mimicking his sister, Crispin did the same and sat down.

"I wonder what Joan and Clarissa are doing now," Tess commented after the two alchemists had been gone for quite a while.

"I think Sam went looking for them," Takara said.

"Maybe they'll tell us when they get back," Crispin added.

Tess and Crispin were happy to be able to mess around together again; and learning chi-blocking moves was a bonus. Crispin got lost in thought, trying to figure out where other pressure points would be and how hard he would have to strike them.

* * *

Laura didn't bother to turn around as she explained, "I hate when people are hurt and I can't do anything about it. I hate not understanding what goes on around be. I hate being left out of everything. I feel like nobody believes I'm capable enough. I'm not trusted by anyone, not even Clarissa. But most of all, it seems like no one can stand to be by me."

Silently, Meili listened to Laura's little rant. Nobody would have expected it, but she knew exactly how Laura felt. She suddenly stood very close to Laura, right next to her, and said, "I can stand to be by you."

Laura paused a moment and blinked, trying to process what Meili just did.

"Besides, that isn't it at all. Joan is just doing Clarissa a favor by helping her become a state alchemist so she can research more about alchemy." Nobody had ever told Meili the purpose of Joan and Clarissa's little escapade, but she had eavesdropped.

Laura whipped around and leaped to her feet and faced Meili with wide eyes. "A what?" she demanded, her frustration not at all eased.

Takara overheard the conversation between Meili and Laura and decided she wanted to do something random. Slowly approaching Laura at first, she suddenly ran and tackled Laura, giggling.

"Still feel left out?" Takara asked, smiling and hoping Laura would feel more included.

Laura jumped when Takara glomped her. "Takara, what was that for?" she said trying, to pull the Ishvalan girl off.

Meili looked at the two. "Excuse me, I'm trying to stand to be by her," Meili said, almost as a joke, but still monotone. "As I was saying, you heard me. You would do the same if your dream was suddenly within reach."

It was something for Laura to think about. Even though she didn't answer, she at least seemed to give it some thought. She sighed and closed her eyes, realizing Meili was right and fought to keep her raging emotions in check.

"_Still, why didn't she tell me?" _Laura still wanted to scream, but knew that would change or help anything.

Takara sat back, letting go of Laura, looking a little disappointed. Tess had started listening to the conversation when Takara glomped Laura. Hearing Meili's quip about trying to stand by Laura, she couldn't help but giggle.

"Hey, Jian!" she called, grinning. "I think Meili's telling jokes over here."

"_Really? Jokes, from her?!"_ she thought, unable to believe it as she glanced at Meili.

Jian almost fell over in his chair as he exclaimed, "Are you serious?! I've been trying to get her to do something like that for weeks!"

Tess laughed at Jian. "Don't fall over in your chair again."

Noticing Crispin was still lost in his own little world, Tess grinned as an idea came to mind. Grinning, she chi-blocked his arms and limited his ability to move it to rousing him from his thoughts.

"Huh? What was that for?" he asked, pouting.

Tess giggled. "Because you were off in your own little world again."

"Gee, thanks," Crispin rolled his eyes and chuckled.

Anzhela smiled and laughed with the others. Then she glanced at Laura and her smile faded, and she kept wondering why Laura was so sad. It just didn't make any sense. She briefly wondered if Jian's depression after Cai was turned into a homunculus was contagious, but quickly dismissed the idea. Something had to be bothering her. Perhaps she was worried about her sister.

Whatever the case, the Drachman turned her attention back to whatever Jian was doing.


	15. Sisterly Bonding

**A/N- Sorry I haven't updated for awhile. School started and I've been focusing on that a bit more. I'm actually procrastinating some studying right now. Smart of me, isn't it? Anyway...**

They left the president in the office, thanking him again. Just like on their way in, Joan tried to find her way around to an exit, but they got lost again. Eventually, they did get out. They talked as they headed back to where the others were. On their way there, they saw Sam.

"Sam? What are you doing here?" Joan asked, surprised to see him there instead of with the others.

As she studied her new silver pocket watch, attention diverted from where she was going, Clarissa nearly ran into Sam. She stumbled back, stuffing the watch in her pocket. "Oh, hi Sam," she said.

Sam looked down at them. "Oh, hello, I was just taking a walk around the city." He turned to Clarissa and added with a thoughtful frown, "I think your sister is wondering where you went. She seemed pretty upset when I left."

Clarissa's friendly smile disappeared, to be replaced by a worried grimace as she asked, "Is she okay?" She knew how Laura could over react at times, and could only imagine how she was taking the situation. No doubt Laura felt left out as Clarissa seemed to unintentionally ignore her.

"What would she be upset about?" Joan inquired. Clearly, the Gemstone Alchemist didn't know Laura as well as Clarissa did.

Clarissa hesitated, but decided to tentatively say, "Laura tends to overreact sometimes."

Thankfully, Joan seemed to understand, at least a little bit. She gave a brief nod as she suggested, "Whatever the reason, we should probably check on her. Sam, are you coming?"

"Sure, I'll come." Sam agreed.

* * *

Carefully observing Tess chi-block Crispin, Jian couldn't help but wonder if he would ever regret teaching them how to chi-block. So far, they weren't good enough to use it in a real fight. But he wasn't sure how far the assassins were willing to go to learn any amount of chi-blocking they could. After all, they had kidnapped him and brought him to Amestris in their attempt to learn the art he developed.

After paralyzing Crispin's arm, Tess sat back with a smirk. "Chi-blocking could come in handy in a fight," she said, thinking about when they had been fighting Envy.

Restoring the movement in Crispin's arm, Jian agreed with Tess. "It's probably the reason I survived my first fight with Envy. She would've crushed me if I hadn't paralyzed her," he recalled. Envy's larger form had taken him by surprise and he hadn't been unable to avoid the inhumanly large hand that had crushed him. The memory made his ribs ache.

"Envy? Who's Envy?" Crispin asked, looking back and forth between them.

Tess thought for a moment on how to explain it. "She's a homunculus, who tricked us into trusting her then attacked us later."

"Sounds like an interesting story," Crispin said, waiting for more explanation.

Tess sighed, and then started explaining what had happened with Envy.

Listening quietly, Takara's thoughts wandered. They hadn't known Emily long, but the Ishvalan girl had begun to become friends with her. That is, until her identity was revealed.

As Tess explained the situation involving the homunculi, Jian's expression shifted into a scowl. Because of them, Cai was in trouble and the Prince didn't dare face his clan without her. Joan and Laura could fight Envy in their quest for revenge all they wanted, but Jian had a score to settle with Lust. His hands trembled at the thought of Cai's face being twisted the foreign one it was now. He forced his hands to steady themselves, but the actions hadn't gone unnoticed by his bodyguards.

Shay noticed Jian's hands tremble as Tess recounted their experience with the homunculi, especially when Lust was mentioned. She may only be able to speculate his thoughts, but they weren't very hard to guess. His bodyguard, and childhood friend, worried about how this would affect him. He had to go back to Xing soon, whether Cai was with them or not. But she didn't dare tell him that. Instead, she silently hoped Meili would knock some sense into him.

Glancing at Meili, Shay wondered if the ex-assassin had noticed anything. Meili sat silently, her eyes cold and penetrating. Shay found it rather unnerving when the ex-assassins gaze settled upon her, and when they found their way to the Prince. It was impossible to tell when the stoic woman thought.

* * *

Envy had given up waiting for them to reach Ishval, realizing that they must have gone somewhere else. Impatient to find them, she decided not to wait for the train and started walking a random direction to see if she could get any ideas where they would go. They couldn't have gone too far, they said they were coming to Ishval.

She wandered through the land around Ishval, not really paying attention to where she was going. Pretty soon Envy realized that she had no idea where she was going or where she had come from.

"Great. I just had to go and get myself lost," Envy muttered. There were no notable landmarks anywhere in view. The area was nothing but a flat, dry desert with little plant life. "And in a wasteland of all places," She added.

The homunculus may be practically immortal, but her body was still human and needed food to stay quiet. Being lost in the desert was not going to be enjoyable.

* * *

Struggling to keep up with Clarissa, Joan constantly had to quicken her pace and was surprised when she realized they hadn't began running yet. She wanted to ask why they needed to hurry, but she could understand the problem. If Laura felt abandoned, it was best to hurry and correct the problem.

Once they returned and saw the others, Clarissa headed straight towards Laura with Joan following behind. Standing next to her sister with worry in her eyes, Clarissa inquired, "Laura, what's wrong?"

Not looking away from her lap, Laura spoke with a shaky voice, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You might have to explain what you mean a little more." Clarissa tentatively responded, unsure of what her sister implying.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were going to become a State Alchemist, Clarissa?" Her voice was harsher and more accusing, but was also quivering violently with sadness and hurt. She wrapped her arms around herself as she struggled to keep tears from falling down her face.

Unsure of how to answer, Clarissa choked on any possible words she could come up with to explain herself. Joan sympathized with the pair, but did not say anything. There was nothing for her to say.

"Well, why?" Laura pressed, anger seeping further into her voice and blending with the sadness. She furiously rubbed the moisture from her eyes in vain.

"I...how did you even know?" Clarissa stuttered. "If I had known you knew about it then I would have talked to you," she said quietly. Suddenly, she hated the reason she gave. She could have said a number of things, but she had chosen the most selfish sounding excuse. It was stupid of her to leave her sister out, but it was strange having Laura around again.

"Meili told me," she informed quickly, as if she didn't really want to talk to them, but was desperate for answers.

Playing with a locket that was once their mother's tied carefully around her neck, the image of her mother danced across her memory. As quickly as her mother's face came into view, the face of the man who murdered her coupled itself with it. His golden hair and eyes tortured her mind and she had to force herself to remember that it was Envy who killed her mother, not the mysterious man.

Laura continued, "It's just that… I thought we were supposed to be sisters. But, we hardly talk to each other anymore."

Clarissa sighed, realizing just how badly she had screwed up. "Hey, I'll tell you everything, ok? I didn't mean to keep this from you, I just... got kinda confused. Life has been so crazy and messed up lately, I forgot what was important," she said gently. She walked over to her sister, and sat next to her. "I'm sorry."

Turning to look at her sister with her green eyes shiny and red from crying, Laura said, "It's alright. I'm sorry for being so moody lately."

"No more secrets, I promise." Clarissa assured her sister.

"No more secrets," Laura echoed.

The two embraced in a sisterly hug, sealing the mutual apology.

Sam and Joan watched the sisters make up, glad for the happy resolution. Laura glanced up at them for a brief moment, before a glimmer of realization sparkled in her eyes as her eyes locked onto Joan's golden ones. She quickly looked away from the State Alchemist when she realized how terrifyingly familiar those golden eyes were.

"Now that family drama is over, can we get something to eat?" Jian complained, practically ruining the touching family moment. None of them had realized he had been paying them any attention.

"You're hungry already?" Joan sighed in disbelief, thankful for the chance of subject. Between watching the sisters make up and the strange way Laura looked at her, she had begun to feel awkward.

"Yes," he replied simply, folding his arms. "Teaching these two chi-blocking used up a lot of energy."

Anzhela smiled a little, he had only shown Tess and Crispin a couple moves and did some unchi-blocking before deciding he needed to sit down. He didn't seem to want to admit his ribs had hurt a little, but Anzhela was sure that was the problem.

Breaking away from the embrace, Laura chuckled as she looked at Jian and rolled her eyes. She pointed out, "Aren't you always hungry?"

"No, I'm not always hungry," Jian defended himself with a playful smile.

"Now, no more tears, we have a hungry prince to feed," Clarissa informed Laura as she stood up.

Grinning, Sam announced, "Yes, we shall all go eat, it's on me!"

Joan laughed. "Are you sure you can pay? Jian eats a lot," she informed Sam.

"Now that is true," Jian agreed, smiling. "But if he want to pay, let him. Unless you want me to steal something for me to eat..." he trailed off, sure that Joan knew what he was trying to say.

As Joan's face contorted to a mix between a grimace and a scowl, Jian could only laugh at her expression. He was aware the look on her face meant she didn't want him stealing, but it was so ridiculous, he couldn't hold himself back.

Sam led them somewhere to get something to eat, having spotted what looked like a great place while he was on his walk. Anzhela followed behind Jian, unable to keep her eyes from wandered to him. When the Prince seemed to feel her gaze burn holes in his back, he turned to look behind him and she averted her gaze to Sam instead only to realize just how tall he was.

Jian followed happily, and then remembered something. He suddenly shouted something in Xingese, snatching everyone's attention and confusing those who didn't know the language and even those who could understand the language.

He turned towards Shay and told her, not bothering to switch back to Amestrian, "I miss my sword."

Shay answered in Xingese as well, "Why are you worrying about this now?"

Jian shrugged before responding, still in Xingese, "I just now realized how helpful it would have been while I was fighting Envy."

Moving on, he ordered his usual large pile of food with plenty of those sweet things we enjoyed so much. He still didn't know what they were called, but he didn't really care.

After they sat down, Shaneka noticed Jian had those sweet things again. Determined to find out what they were, she turned to the nearest Amestrian, which happened to be Joan, and asked what they were.

Joan looked at them for a minute and said, "That's just some taffy." Xingese candy must be different than the Amestrian kind, because Joan didn't find them very impressive while Jian was developing an obsession for them.

As Jian ate, he thought about what to do about his sword. He doubted he'd find one he liked in this country, but maybe he could take one of Meili's. After all, she did have two and she seemed to like using her hidden blade. He took another of the sweet things, apparently called taffy.

"Can you still pay for all of this?" Jian asked Sam jokingly.

Sam smiled and nodded. "Yes, I can actually," he said, then continued to eat.

"He comes from a pretty wealthy family." Joan informed casually.

"Good for you," Jian said. He finished up his large pile, and, deciding he hadn't had enough, ordered a second pile just as big then got to work on eating that one. He wanted to save the taffy, so he took his time with those.

After ordering their food, Laura and Clarissa sat down and the Inferno Alchemist filled her sister in with as many details and she could recall. It took a long time for her to finish, and by the time she was done, most everybody was done eating, except for maybe Jian, because he had so much. Clarissa glanced around, noticing this. "Laura, let's go do something. We can meet up with these guys later." Before her sister could answer, she told Joan they would be back later, grabbed Laura's arm, and started dragging her out.

Shay stole a piece of taffy from Jian, and popped it in her mouth. "You're right, these are good!"

"That's why I've been eating them!" Jian agreed, eating another one. "So where are they going?" he wondered aloud.

"For a walk or something. They said they'd be back soon," Joan answered.

* * *

As she walked next to her sister, Laura asked curiously, "So where exactly are we going?" she asked her sister curiously.

Clarissa shrugged, grinning mischievously.

Laura tilted her head wondering why Clarissa was smiling like that. "What? Why are you smiling like that?" she asked her younger sister. "You're creeping me out." Laura looked at her sister, and then she pulled her gaze away to look around. She put her hands in her pockets, looking around at where they were going as she wondered where Clarissa was taking them.

* * *

Wrath saw two of the girls wander off and figured it would be a good time to take care of them while they were away from the others. He was confident that he could fight them all at once, but it was better to pick them off one by one. So, he went after the two.

The homunculus wasn't noticed because of the sheer number of people in Central, that and the Xingese members of the group weren't actually paying that much attention. He was pretty far from the group, so easily slipped under their radar. Father seemed to think they were bothersome, so Wrath planned on eliminating all of them. It was only a matter of time. These two girls would never suspect him of being a homunculus.

Pride and Lust were just outside the city, just in case Wrath needed help. It wasn't his idea for them to tag along; they had wanted to come along. Even when he denied any sort of assistance, Father demanded he let them come under the claim that they needed more experience.

* * *

"Hey, Joan," Takara said, smiling, "you missed a very entertaining chi-blocking session."

Tess and Crispin burst out laughing at the thought of it. Tess pulled up her sleeves, showing off the bruises on her arms. Crispin showed off some of his as well, telling them about how hard Tess could hit.

An idea popping into his mind, a mischievous grin spread across his face as he decided to demonstrate what he learned to Joan. He stood up and shot out a fist that made a solid connection with the State Alchemist's left arm, but withdrew and began clutching his now-throbbing hand.

"Ow..." he moaned, unable to understand why Joan's arm was so hard.

"Oh, by the way, Joan has a few automail limbs," Tess said casually, trying not to laugh.  
Takara burst out laughing. Joan tried not to laugh while Jian burst out laughing loudly. Deciding that he could add to the hilarity, Jian chi-blocked Crispin's leg.

Crispin squawked as he flopped to the ground again. Sam smiled at the unusual group, trying not to laugh. Anzhela was laughing harder than she had in a long time and nearly fell off her chair because of how funny they were being.

"Yet again, Crispin is falling over," Tess grinned, reaching out her hand to help him sit up. "And Anzhela almost joined him."

"It was his turn, wasn't it?" Jian asked, trying not to laugh too much.

"I wish I could've seen the lesson," Joan said, stifling a laugh.

Tess laughed, nodding. "I bet there will be more."

"Yeah, I still want to practice more," Crispin sat up and was carefully examining his hand. "Can you un-paralyze my leg now? It's kind of awkward sitting on the ground while you guys are all in chairs."

"Sure." Jian said, doing as requested.

"Ow. Thanks," Crispin said, carefully standing up.

"Are you okay?" Joan asked, still trying not to laugh. "By the way, my legs are automail too," she warned him for future reference.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Crispin said, smirking. "Thanks for the warning."

Tess gasped as she remembered something. "We should tell Selene that Crispin found us." She pulled out her phone and sent Selene a text: "_Nice surprise, thanks. Did you purposely not tell him you knew me?"_

Selene got Tess's text and replied, _"You're welcome. We decided it would be funny to not tell him."_

Selene grinned and showed the text to Keith and Evan, who snickered as they imagined what happened. While in the ruins of Xerxes, they had found someone to help the slaves start their free lives. They were on their way back to Amestris so they could free more slaves.

Tess showed Crispin Selene's text. "She purposely didn't tell you she knew me." she said, grinning.

"Maybe if I had been paying attention when I told them your name I would have noticed their expressions," Crispin shook his head, laughing at himself for not paying attention.

"Always being aware of your surroundings and remaining on guard at all times is the best way to survive. Don't leave yourself open to surprises," Meili quoted the assassin leader, Kang. Despite no longer being an assassin, it was still a valuable piece from her training that she could use as a bodyguard. Shay might have learned something similar.

The ex-assassin thought she sense something suspicious nearby, but discarded it as he imagination. It seemed like a homunculus, but at the same time, it didn't. Its soul was much too small, not very powerful or supernatural. It seemed to be a human, but she couldn't place a finger on what seemed different about it. Whatever it was, it wasn't close enough to be a threat to the Prince.

* * *

Laura walked, still waiting for Clarissa to tell her where she's headed. But Clarissa kept moving forward without explaining. It wasn't a secret, but it was a surprise.

A nervous little child approached them, and Laura stopped her sister. It was a little boy with shoulder-length black hair and bangs that covered his left eye. His right eye peeked out from behind his bangs, begging for help and he seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"I can't find my daddy. Can you help me?" He could barely get the words out, and appeared desperate.

Laura looked down at the young boy with concern, and then glanced at Clarissa. She shifted on her feet and Clarissa appeared to be wrestling to decide what to do.

"Please!" he begged. "If I don't find him soon, he'll leave without me!

"Yeah we'll help, do you know where you saw him last?" Laura asked, her voice soothing.

"At the train station, I think."

Laura nodded and turned to Clarissa. "Do you think we can get him safely to his dad then continue to wherever you were taking us?"

Clarissa shrugged, and said, "Sure."

"Thank you so much!" The little boy exclaimed, relief flooding his one visible eye. "Can you lead me there? I'm so lost here."

Clarissa nodded, smiling at the boy. As they began to lead the boy to the train station, she leaned over to Laura and whispered, "He's so cute!"

Laura rolled her eyes. She felt a little uneasy, but she could pinpoint why. Glancing around the area, she felt as if they were being watched, but disregarded the feeling as paranoia.

Once at the train station, he pointed to an area in the outskirts of the city and suggested, "Let's check over there! I think I saw him go this way before he got lost!"

Recalling that area he wanted to go to was near one of the entrances to the underground tunnels in the abandoned outer edges of the city, Laura followed him. She couldn't help but wonder why his father would go to a place only inhabited by gangs and the poor people without any other place to go.

The boy continued heading the direction he'd pointed at. But at this point, it appeared he was just guessing where his father may have gone. They soon found themselves in a sketchy part of the city, where most people have moved out of and into the nicer, newer homes. Most of the buildings were at risk of collapsing, and all the businesses shut down.

Wandering curiously into a blacksmith's shop, the boy looked at the stuff that were left behind. There were tools, many of them very sharp. There were horseshoes littering the floor, and even some weapons such as swords and axes. He'd pick them up and look at them. He wouldn't be surprised if Clarissa or Laura took the sharp objects away from him, telling him they were dangerous.

Laura was busy looking at the town that seemed to be abandoned. "Why is everything so…old?" she asked, moving her hair off her shoulder.

"I don't know. It doesn't look like anyone lives here." The boy answered. He was only about 9 or 10, so he wasn't likely to know what happened to turn the outskirts into a ghost town.

He examined a couple more weapons, and found a large hammer in pretty good condition, and an ax that was even better. He held them firmly in his hands, testing the weight before doing anything else.

"Now that we're here where no one is around," He began, his voice much less innocent than it had been before. "Come with me and I might not hurt you."

Laura's eyes widened as she whipped around to face him and asked the little boy, "What are you talking about?"

"Um...Laura, I think he's threatening us," Clarissa told her sister skeptically. "Ok kid, I don't want to have to hurt you, so why don't you just put the weapons down like a good little boy..."

Being called a little kid annoyed him, but he continued with gritted teeth, "I doubt you can hurt me, I'm not a normal kid." He moved with amazing speed and swung the ax, but purposefully missed chopping off Clarissa's head. "That was just a warning."

"Whoa!" Laura gasp, falling back in surprise.

Clarissa gasped, and skipped back a few steps, away from the kid. "_Who is this kid and w__hat is his issue?!"_ she thought.

"Now, are you going to come quietly, or is this going to have to get messy?" he asked calmly, no longer the desperate little boy they had met not too long ago. "It would be a shame to bring you to the slave traders in pieces. You'd be worth so much less."

It was suddenly clear the boy was part of the slave trade, but how he could have gotten mixed up in such a mess was unclear. Perhaps he was born into it and trained to use weapons when he was young, which would explain why he wielded the old ax so comfortably.

"You're not taking us anywhere," Clarissa persisted, starting to realize this kid was definitely not normal.

"Are you sure you can take on a homunculus?" He revealed ominously, his eye glinting in the light. He added, "My name is Wrath, if you were wondering, and you don't stand a chance."

"_This kid is a homunculus?"_ she thought, and almost laughed. "I've fought you guys before, I can do it again."

Laura turned to her sister with a determined look. "Yeah, we can take you!" she said glaring at the little boy.

"You truly have no idea," he smirked. "You didn't defeat any of us. We're all still alive an well."

Laura continued to glare at him. "Yeah but we have one thing you don't. We have alchemy!"

Wrath laughed maliciously, a chilling sound to hear from a child. "Alchemy is no concern of mine," he said. "Besides, I also have something you don't." However he didn't reveal what that was. He was determined to get through this without using his ultimate eye.

Laura clapped her hands together and created a big fist that made Wrath go flying into the air.

Wrath went flying into the air and landed on a nearby building skillfully. No normal person could do that, let alone a kid. He still held the ax and the hammer in his hands and somehow maneuvered his way down from the building and back after Clarissa and Laura. After gauging the skill the two possessed, he determined this fight would not necessarily be challenging, but somewhat enjoyable.

Unaware of her automail, Wrath brought the hammer down on Laura's left arm. He heard it dent and realized what it was. The arm was still usable, but it was definitely damaged now that it had a large dent its upper arm.

"Your automail may have just spared you a painfully broken arm," he told Laura. "Any other prosthetics I should know about?"

Laura looked at the dent in her arm, thankful that her left arm was automail and not skin and bone. Just because Laura's arm was automail, didn't mean he didn't do anything besides dent it. Now, it would react as quickly as she wanted it to, but she would make do with it.

Clarissa looked at Laura, grateful the automail saved her sister from her arm being crushed painfully. She looked back at Wrath. Because he was so fast, her fighting style probably wouldn't be very effective. There was no way she would be able to keep up with him. So, she settled on the alchemy based, long ranged fighting. She clapped her hands together and sent spikes flying through the air. Then, knowing the kid would easily dodge the spikes, she formed a wall behind him and broke it, so it came crashing down towards the kid. Laura did what she could to help.

He easily dodged the spiked and saw the debris from the wall falling toward him. Using his ultimate eye, he found a path through the debris that he used to get out without a single injury.

"You'll have to do better than that," he taunted.

He rushed forward at Clarissa and Laura, who had been standing next to each other, tripping both of them before they had time to react. Both girls crashed to the ground.

Laura hit the ground hard and it knocked the breath out of her. She made no move to get up, waiting until she caught her breath. "I hate that kid," she mumbled bitterly," she mumbled bitterly.

Wrath jumped onto their stomachs and stood on them, preventing them from getting up. Though he wasn't really sure he was heavy enough to keep them on the ground for long, they were slowly drifting over to where Wrath wanted to take them. And they didn't even realize it. He just couldn't believe how gullible humans are. It wasn't going to be long until they were too tired to resist.


End file.
